Flunked?

By Gaby Vargas

Pablo, who is in 5th grade, asked his school for permission to take two exams in advance because he would be traveling with us to New York City for four days.

“Gordo, if you want I can help you study”, I offered enthusiastically while savoring in advance those days together with my husband, children, in-laws and four grandchildren.

“No, thank you Gaby, you flunked 5th grade”. Yikes! I was in shock.

“Escuincle soperutano”… it should be noted that even though I get along very well with everybody, this grandson and I have a very special relationship. We love each other, although it may seem otherwise. He made that comment because he knew I would immediately complain, just as I did, and I would chase him around the living room to tickle-torture him, which I also did.

We travelled together to Manhattan because I was going to receive an award from Pro Mujer, an organization that in the last 20 years has given millions of dollars to support women in Latin America. The event was a benefit dinner organized to raise funds and give three awards, so we reserved a table for my whole family.

Gaby Vargas, (right), and Rosario Pérez at Pro Mujer 2013 annual benefit event.

During the ceremony, after the speeches, a Nicaraguan woman, a Pro Mujer client, took the stand. She told us the story of her life and narrated how, thanks to this organization, she was able to support her family and recognize herself as a capable and valuable woman. With their help, she earned respect and recognition from people who worked in her town’s local market, who had previously underestimated her. All of this happened while she was coping with cancer and raising three children as a single mother. Before this evening, she had never been in a plane, let alone dreamed of visiting New York.

My four grandchildren, mesmerized, didn’t blink as they listened to her story. They were facing for the first time the reality of struggle and human pain narrated first hand. They realized that difficult experiences can be transformed into something worthy.

At the end of this moving experience, the auctioneer asked all of the attendants to use their cell phones to make donations through a phone number that appeared on the main screen.

That morning my husband and I had given our grandchildren some money for their birthday, which would be happening in the next days.

Surprising all of us, Toño, my oldest grandson one who is only 12 years old, immediately asked his mom for her cell phone to donate half of the money he had received. The other two followed and, with some reluctance, my fourth grandson did the same.

To view on the main screen the names of Toño, Pablo, Nicolas y Emi, along with the “de Mexico” and their very modest amounts donated, was a great source of pride for their grandparents and parents. At the end of the event, the four kids asked me to take them to say hello to the Nicaraguan woman and shake hands with their new heroine. In their eyes, I could see that they were opened to a new awareness towards the responsibility that we all have to help those who are less fortunate in life.

From left to right, Rosario Pérez, Maria Hinojosa, Gaby Vargas, Bill Rhodes, Maria Alejandra Rodriguez, Barbara Ricci and Lynne Patterson.

We walked back to the hotel, with a great sensation and that good feeling and spirit that you get when you help somebody else. The children didn’t talk about anything but the courage of this woman.

I fell asleep with a smile on my face, with the certainty that they will never forget that experience, and with the hope that I taught Pablo the lesson that, well… even though you flunked 5th grade, you can get an award.

Mexico, July 8th, 2013.

“Andrea: De Tímida e Insegura a Líder de Grupo en su Comunidad”

Andrea Avelina Gironda es clienta de Pro Mujer en Bolivia desde hace un año. “Conocí a Pro Mujer cuando su personal vino a visitar a las casas de mi zona en la Urbanización Centauro de El Alto de La Paz. Me invitaron a armar mi grupo”, dice.

Andrea tenía una pequeña tienda de barrio y desde su primer ciclo en la institución su vida cambió: aumentó su capital de negocio y lo expandió al rubro de venta de desayunos y almuerzos.

Habiendo elevado sus destrezas gracias a los servicios educativos que se encuentran en Pro Mujer, Andrea se transformó. De haber sido una mujer tímida e insegura, ahora es líder y organiza a sus compañeras, quienes, en sus palabras, “a veces necesitan una mano fuerte”. Su vida familiar también mejoró. Andrea manifiesta que se comunica con su familia más que antes, y que puede transmitir a su esposo e hijos lo que aprende en sus capacitaciones.

El impacto en su vida fue muy significativo ya que ahora Andrea puede visitar el consultorio médico cuando lo desea o cuando los miembros de su familia se sienten mal. Andrea agradece a su asesora de crédito porque les recuerda que deben ir no solo cuando están enfermas sino también cuando están sanas para controlar su peso, talla, y para realizarse el examen de Papanicolaou.

Desde que se convirtió en clienta de Pro Mujer en Bolivia, la vida de Andrea Avelina cambió para bien.

Andrea no se conforma con lo que tiene, aspira a tener una tienda mucho más llena de productos y vender incluso al por mayor. Ansía comprar una cocina más grande para poder atender a más clientes, además de contar con otros utensilios de trabajo.

Con humildad, Andrea explica que “todos los días me esfuerzo para trabajar por ayudar a mi familia y darles lo mejor. Quiero que mis hijos tengan un futuro mejor. Hay días en que no me va bien en las ventas pero por lo menos la comida no falta en casa. Lo que me alienta es que siempre encuentro una palabra de consuelo y aliento de mi asesora y de mis compañeras de Pro Mujer, por eso cuando nos reunimos reímos mucho, compartimos entre nosotras esas dos horas que tenemos los viernes”.

“I Was Able to Save My Life”

As told by Edelma Altamirano Espinoza to Alejandra Narvaez Jiron, Communications Specialist for Pro Mujer in Nicaragua.

Edelma Altamirano Espinoza has been a client of Pro Mujer in Nicaragua for the last seven years.

“My name is Edelma Altamirano Espinoza and I am a client at the Pro Mujer center in León, Nicaragua. I am 37 years-old and have two children, a girl who is 20 and boy who is 16. My daughter is married, lives with her husband and is in her third year of her Pharmacological studies at university. My son is finishing high school and lives at home with me and his father.

I used to work as a housekeeper. My husband also used to work, but one day he stopped working and started drinking. It was back then that I decided to start a business selling clothes. A friend of mine, who had a credit with Pro Mujer, told me about the organization. It caught my attention the way the organization operates and the opportunity it offered me to get a small loan with only my word as collateral.

I have been a Pro Mujer client in Nicaragua for the last seven years. My first loan was US$49, which let me buy some clothing in bulk to then resell. Later, my capital grew and now I buy clothing in higher quantities. I go to Honduras to sell them. I travel three times a week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I can sell them at a better price in Honduras and sometimes I sell on credit between 10 and 12 dozens of pieces to one client.

Edelma buys clothes in Nicaragua and travels to Honduras to sell them at a better price.

I am the president of my Communal Bank Las Madrugadoras (The Early Risers) in León. In my role I try to motivate my group to stay together and pay on time. I try to instill in my group that the money we borrow from Pro Mujer is to invest in our small businesses, not to buy anything else.

I am really grateful for Pro Mujer because thanks to the organization I was able to save my life. They always tell us to go to the gynecologists consistently. In 2006, I decided to take a Pap smear for the first time and the medical staff at Pro Mujer found something that it was in an advanced stage. They did a biopsy and confirmed the presence of the human papilloma virus that can cause cervical cancer.

After a series of exams, Pro Mujer referred me to the Hospital Escuela de León so that I could have a hysterectomy so that I can avoid developing uterine cancer later on. That was three years ago. In the beginning I was sad and nervous because I heard people saying that a woman is not a woman if she does not have her uterus.

I did not have to pay for my surgery nor did I have to wait long for the procedure. It was a difficult moment for my family but thank God we overcame the situation. God had a plan for me and put Pro Mujer in my life.

Edelma did not have to pay for the surgery, neither had to wait long for the procedure thanks to Pro Mujer in Nicaragua.

I stopped working for three months, but I kept paying my loan to Pro Mujer. I could not fail the organization that not only gave me a credit to start my small business, but also helped saved my life.

Today, I talk with many women who are my neighbors, friends, sisters at my church, and my peers in my Communal Bank, to motivate them to get their Pap test. They should not procrastinate in taking care of their health. I also asked my daughter to do the test because you never know.”

Help Salma Hayek Help Us!

We have an exciting update to share with you about the CHIME FOR CHANGE campaign:

Yesterday, Salma Hayek Pinault, co-founder of the campaign and longtime Pro Mujer supporter, announced a major addition to the initiative – THE SOUND OF CHANGE LIVE, a concert to be headlined by Beyoncé on June 1st at Twickenham Stadium in London and televised worldwide.

The great news is that proceeds from the concert will go to Pro Mujer and other organizations advancing women’s empowerment. The concert will be produced by the forces behind Live Earth and Live Aid and broadcast to more than 1 billion people!

Salma is helping us raise $25,000 to provide 200 of our entrepreneurial client leaders in Mexico with advanced business, health and empowerment training. These women will return to their communal bank groups and share their knowledge with other Pro Mujer clients, so your investment in these 200 will actually be paid forward to help another 6,000 microentrepreneurs break the cycle of poverty.

Through Catapult, CHIME FOR CHANGE’S crowd-funding website partner, you have helped us raise more than $5,500 so far.

Here is how YOU can continue to help Salma and Beyoncé help us!

• Join the growing movement by donating on our Catapult page .
• Share this link http://www.catapult.org/project/train-200-pro-mujer-peer-leaders-mexico with your Facebook and Twitter friends.
• Create a team or join Salma’s team to make your voices louder.

What do YOU chime for? Send us your pictures and we’ll post them on our website, blog and Facebook. In the meantime, here’s what some of us at Pro Mujer chime for:

P.S. – Join the growing movement to advance women and girls by donating on our Catapult page and spreading the good news!

A Life Transformed by Savings

By Alejandra Narváez, Communications Specialist, Pro Mujer in Nicaragua

Beatriz Espinoza, 34 years old, and her six children live in a humble house made out of tin and with dirt floors in the Villa Reconcialicion neighborhood in Managua, Nicaragua. The area where she lives is poor. She earns a living by selling vegetables, sodas and snacks from “El Mercadito,” as people refer to her store.

A few years ago, Beatriz did not have a job, let alone the means to start her own business. Everything changed once she became a Pro Mujer client in Nicaragua.

Originally from the town of San Miguelito, Beatriz hopes to fulfill her dreams of returning to her home town, see the ocean, eat a hamburger and go to the movies for the first time. She says that she had a tough childhood filled with hardships while living in the countryside, in her small town and then later on in the city where she migrated in search of better opportunities.

“Due to domestic violence when I was 15 years old, I moved to Managua. At age 16, I had my first son Cesar and then a year later, I had Jonatan. Their father abandoned us during my second pregnancy in 1996,” Beatriz says.

When Cesar turned two, he was diagnosed with chronic renal failure, a disease that was unknown to Beatriz.

“I was 18 years old and I didn’t know what do. I told myself that I would look for ways to make money and take my son far away to cure him. I didn’t understand that his disease was in his blood and that I could not extract it,” she tells us.

In search of better conditions, and to cover the treatment of her son, Beatriz joined her life with another man with whom she had two girls and twin boys. “But the cure was worse than the disease,” she says. “At the end, I had to continue struggling by myself. I became father and mother to my six children.”

With five younger children to take care of, it was not easy to deal with Cesar’s disease. “When he started receiving hospital treatment, they told me that he needed a room in our house for him alone. That was when a sister from the church told me about Pro Mujer.”

Posing in front of “El Mercadito” left to right: Jonatán Velázquez, Cindy López Espinoza, Beatriz Espinoza y Yorlin Montalbán. Forefront: Cristofer López, Eric David López y César Velázquez.

Beatriz became a Pro Mujer client in 2010. Her initial loan was US$80 which she used to start building the room for her son and to start her vegetables and fruits business.

Beatriz was always positive and found the economic means to survive. “My son was slowly dying and I could not go to the streets to work. During that time, I received my second loan of US$120 from Pro Mujer. I used this loan to diversify the products for my store. Now, I sell fruits, vegetables and sodas. Pro Mujer helped me when I needed it the most, with no guarantees. So I will never disappoint them”.

Meanwhile, Cesar survived connected to a machine that cleaned his blood. Only last year, the doctors mentioned the possibility of a kidney transplant.

“That’s when I turned to my two year savings from Pro Mujer. I made all the arrangements and Pro Mujer helped me out. They made an exception in order to give me all my savings. Cesar and I had to go through some urgent exams abroad to assess whether we were compatible and I could donate him one of my kidneys”.

Beatriz wrote a moving letter to Pro Mujer about her situation. She not only received US$500 from her savings but also additional help from employees at Pro Mujer who knew her story.

Last November 7^th, after 17 years of suffering, Cesar received one of her mother’s kidneys. “I am so grateful to Pro Mujer and my mother who gave me the opportunity to live”, says Cesar who is planning to go back to high school.

Beatriz’s life goes on. She is the president of the communal bank “La Dalia” in Villa Reconciliacion. Her business continues to grow and with her earnings she feeds her children, buys their clothes and pays for their studies. Jonatan is attending his second year of engineering at the National University of Nicaragua. Her two girls are about to finish high school and the twin boys are in fourth grade.

“On my behalf and my son Cesar, I would like to thank Pro Mujer for helping me during the most difficult time of my life, when there was no hope for him. Today, he has another chance to live,” says Beatriz. “I will always be grateful to you.”

Congratulations To The First Pro Mujer Class of 2013!

By Yesenia Diaz, Communications Coordinator, Pro Mujer in Mexico

Over the past five years, Pro Mujer in Mexico has offered free computer training to our clients and their families as part of the financial, health and human development services we provide. This computer course helps clients grow their businesses, and includes a suite of courses, including the use of products generously donated by Microsoft, a longtime Pro Mujer partner. Training modules include Word, Excel 1, Excel 2, PowerPoint, Internet 1, Internet 2, Publisher, Movie Maker and Access, among others.

A Pro Mujer credit officer (standing in red shirt) leads a computer training course for clients and their children

The culmination of this training is a formal graduation ceremony complete with certificates recognizing their efforts, time and dedication; attendance by clients’ families and friends, Pro Mujer employees, including course instructors and credit officers; music, dancing and of course – a celebratory cake.

In 2012, we graduated 220 clients in the first graduation ceremony of this kind. Demand for the training course was so high that we had to divide the course into two so that we can now graduate two classes in one year.

The first ceremony of this year took place last month and we graduated 188 clients! Among the class of 2013 were clients from centers in Xochimilco, Teoloyucan, Pachuca, Tizayuca and Ocotlan and by the end of the year, we expect to duplicate that figure.

Proud graduates from our Xochimilco center show off their computer training certificates.

Congratulations to the graduating class of 2013 for their efforts, dedication and perseverance!

“Chime” with Pro Mujer & Salma Hayek Pinault in Celebration of International Women’s Day

Today, millions of people around the world are taking to the streets to celebrate the contributions and achievements of women and girls, and give voice to the challenges they continue to face through thousands of events and initiatives as part of International Women’s Day.

Pro Mujer clients march in Peru, just one of our many activities across Latin America.

One of these initiatives is “Chime for Change,” a powerful new campaign founded by Gucci that convenes, unites and strengthens the global voices demanding women and girls be given the opportunities to fulfill their potential through education, health and justice.

Pro Mujer would like to thank Salma Hayek Pinault, one of the founders of “Chime for Change” and a longtime supporter of our organization, for personally selecting us to benefit from the campaign.

Salma Hayek Pinault and Pro Mujer President and CEO, Rosario Pérez, at the 2011 “Puss In Boots 3D” premiere and auction benefiting Pro Mujer.

Each and every day our more than 1,900 employees are working at the front lines to give our 270,000 clients the vital tools they need to realize their potential and become agents of change in their families and communities.

Salma is helping us to raise $25,000 to provide 200 women microentrepreneurs in Mexico with advanced business and empowerment training so they can better lead the change process within their communities. These funds will be raised through Catapult.org, the first crowdfunding online platform focused exclusively on women and girls.

We have 140 days to reach our goal. If we don’t meet it, we lose those funds.

Celebrate International Women’s Day with Salma and Pro Mujer:

• Join the growing movement by visiting our Catapult page.
• Share this link http://www.catapult.org/project/train-200-pro-mujer-peer-leaders-mexico with your Facebook and Twitter friends.
• Create a team with your friends and family to make your voices louder.

You can learn more about this campaign by watching Salma’s inspirational video:

Pro Mujer chimes for the vital tools and opportunities women need to realize their potential and transform their lives and the lives of their families.

What do YOU chime for?

PS – For International Women’s Day, raise your voices to the sound of connection, progress and change for women and girls around the world by clicking here.

Salma Hayek Pinault Selects Pro Mujer for Gucci’s “Chime for Change” Campaign

“Chime for Change” is a new campaign joining the growing international women’s movement. Its goal is to convene, unite and strengthen the voices speaking out for women and girls around the world. Beyoncé, Frida Giannini (Creative Director for Gucci), and Salma Hayek Pinault serve as the campaign’s founding committee.

A longtime Pro Mujer supporter, Salma selected Pro Mujer as 1 of 3 organizations to benefit from the campaign in conjunction with Catapult.org – the first crowdfunding online platform focused exclusively on women and girls. Working with Catapult, Pro Mujer’s goal is to raise $25,000 to provide advanced training for 200 courageous and hardworking women.

Want to get involved? Here is how YOU can help:

• Help us meet our goal by visiting our Catapult page and making a donation.
• Spread the word by sharing the link – http://www.catapult.org/project/train-200-pro-mujer-peer-leaders-mexico – on Facebook and Twitter.
• Form a team on the Catapult page by inviting your friends and family.

To learn more about the campaign, please watch the inspirational video below.

A New Way To Combat Global Poverty At The Supermarket

For every box sold, Nature’s Path will donate 2 percent of the retail price (up to $20,000) to the nonprofit Whole Planet Foundation to fight poverty. The foundation provides grants to microloans projects like the ones run by Pro Mujer, which have received the foundation’s support for years.

“Siempre Inspiran” (Always Inspire) Awards and a Chance for Pro Mujer to Win $10,000 Extended to January 3rd!

Due to the popularity of Siempre Mujer magazine’s 2012 Siempre Inspiran awards, the deadline to cast your vote for our very own Dr. Gabriela Salvador and help Pro Mujer win $10,000 has been extended to Thursday, January 3rd!

To recap, Gabriela, who serves as our Director of Health and Human Development, has been selected by the magazine as 1 of 5 finalists in recognition of her work in advancing Pro Mujer’s commitment to provide women across Latin America with access to high-quality, low-cost primary healthcare.

The finalist who receives the most votes through the magazine’s Facebook campaign will receive $10,000 towards her organization.

Gabriela is currently in 1st place with more than 1,500 votes, but we still need your help!

Here are 4 easy steps to cast your vote:

1. Go to Siempre Mujer’s contest page.
2. Click “Debe gustarle esta página para continuar,” which means, “‘Like’ this page to continue.”
3. Under Gabriela’s name, click “Vota Ahora” or “Vote Now.”
4. Finally, you’ll get another prompt that says “Go to App” that will allowSiempre Mujer to post your vote on your Facebook wall OR you can skip this option altogether, but your vote will still register.

You can vote every day up to the end of the campaign on January 3rd. Once you go through the steps above the first time, you can bypass steps 1, 2 and 4 and just vote.

Dr. Salvador and a client at the launch of our Health Club in Peru

Your support will help us raise our visibility and secure much needed funds to provide more women in Latin America with easy access to the financial, health and human development services they need to break the cycle of poverty.

Thank you for voting.