Accomplishments of Van Mujeres – 2005-2006

ACTION

Sept 2005-Jan 2006: DESIGNED & DEVELOPED VAN MUJERES PROGRAM

The initial major accomplishment was the overall design and establishment of the Van Mujeres program by developing the three major branches of the program.

1) Training-the-Trainers: Conducted “train-the-trainers” workshops with 120 field agents to prepare them to train and support the 15,000 poor women in all parts of the state of Tabasco.

2) Developed Credit Application Process: Developed the mechanisms to process the credit applications. Processed more than 30,000 applications from interested women, and completed 15,000 files, each proposing a detailed business project and containing all the documents required by the financial institutions.

3) Established Financial Mechanism: Established a Trust Fund and the financing mechanisms and arrangements among the state and federal government, banks, and rural credit agencies to administer and recuperate US$9 million in micro credits.

The Governor officially launched the Van Mujeres program at a statewide Forum on November 4, 2005 with more than 6,000 women attending.


ACTION

January – March 2006: 15,000 WOMEN TRAINED & MICRO-LOAN APPLICATIONS PREPARED

Field agents, working 6 days a week and holding as many as three workshops a day, conducted more than 1,000 workshops (each ranging from 20-90 women) in 360 rural and urban communities throughout the state to help women identify productive projects and micro-businesses and prepare their credit documents. As a result, by March 2006, all 15,000 women had identified their productive projects, completed their micro credit applications, and were trained as to how to apply for loans and deal with financial institutions.


ACTION

March-July 2006: 7,000 WOMEN RECEIVED MICROCREDITS AND START-UP BUSINESSES

The granting of credits began in earnest in late February. By May 2006, 4,030 women had received credits and had launched their business activities. Many women had already begun to repay their credits; a 97% repayment rate was recorded within the first 3 months. As of July 2006, more than 7,000 women have received credits.


ACTION

May - July 2006: CNN and STUDENTS OF THE WORLD CHOOSE TO FILM VAN MUJERES AS POVERTY-REDUCTION SUCCESS STORY

Students of the World chooses to feature the Van Mujeres program as a success story of the Clinton Global Initiative and sends a team of six students from the University of North Carolina to Tabasco in May to make a documentary film about Van Mujeres, with the intention of presenting a short film at CGI 2006 in New York in September.

CNN selects Van Mujeres as a success story for alleviating world poverty to be included in an hour-long program about poverty with President Bill (scheduled for August 2006). A CNN crew comes to Tabasco during July 5-8 to shoot the story.