The Tropical Depression
After hearing about the tropical depression that hit Honduras and seeing pictures of the flooding in El Progreso, I was up late last night really worried about our clients. Thousands of people are displaced in El Progreso and I had no idea whether or not that was any of the women we work with. Thankfully I got an email from Yapa this morning assuring me that they all were fine, but I still felt that I needed to call a few of the women to make sure.
Catching Up
I just got off the phone with Karen and Natalia. They both said their houses only had minimum flooding and it was the homes on the other side of the river that were the worst hit. Natalia’s sister lost everything–her house, clothes, and belongings. As Natalia said, “God has the power to take away anything at anytime. Thankfully we were lucky.”
We spent a few minutes catching up on what was new in our lives. Karen told me that her daughter Jessica was sick again and she had to take her to the clinic. On a positive note, however, she told me that she still gets together with Abigayl, Keyla, Reyna, and Jazmine every day to make eco-friendly bags to sell. Natalia seemed to be busy helping to take care of her sister.
La Ceiba
I then asked each of them a couple things about La Ceiba. Karen assures me that her group of Abigayl, Carmen, Maria, and herself are still ready to work together. I also asked her to do me a favor and get the missing contact information from a couple of our clients.
The big microfinance news, however, was with Natalia. She has formed a new solidarity group consisting of four women that are moving to Villa Soleada and two remaining in Siete de Abril. Natalia has had prior experience working with microfinance institutions and understands the committment it takes to be in a group. Therefore, when a few women told her that they wanted to be in her group but not until the loans arrived she said that was unacceptable and began to form her own group. They are having their first meeting together tomorrow and she said they will be ready to work with Laurie in a couple of weeks in order to prepare for the loans. I was very excited to hear the initiative Natalia took to organize the group! Tomorrow I will speak with the members of her old group to see if they would still like to work together.
Back to the Real World
The reason I mention all of this is that I think sometimes it is important to take a step back from our work in the classroom and realize how real our clients are. It seems silly, but it is something that is easy to forget when we are physically so far removed. Personally, I was busy with other things this past week and didn’t have time to call the women. It took a tropical depression for me to realize how much our clients mean to me and how much I want to see them succeed if they are willing to work hard.
The Realization
The storm also made me realize how strong of a supporter I am of our default policy. We have been going back and forth lately between a strict zero tolerance policy versus a policy where clients who default on their loans have the option to appeal to us to try and get another shot at becoming a part of a solidarity group. Ultimately the decision lies in our hands, but the idea is that if their excuse is “acceptable” then we will let them try again (with a punishment of course).
As Natalia said today, they got lucky this time. However, in the event that a natural disaster were to hit again it could very well be our clients who are suffering. Our default policy may be more costly to us, however, I think it is a cost we should take on. In the end, it is the policy that I believe gives our clients a better shot at success and at actually improving their standard of living.