Talkin' about business

My poor coworkers are getting their exercise today, visiting 3 village banks for loan repayment and business sessions. Unfortunately all banks are located in different extremes of the city, and even one of the banks is located outside of Cajamarca.

I accompanied my coworkers this morning to support Mari and her "marketing" business session. The village bank Estrellitas did an amazing job of participating when Mari asked them questions. Our women already know a lot about basic business tactics, they just don't put a name, like marketing, onto what they do. For example the loan recipient Miriam makes curtains and mototaxi seat covers. At the end of the year she gives her customers a small keychain if they purchase more than x amount of material. That is her promotion, marketing, catch to remain and attract more clients. The women had a lot of ideas and questions about how to improve their marketing. This was definitely a hit business topic.

Yesterday was my exercise day. I went to the bank Margaritas located above Los Banos to visit our knitting group. The group started to make baby blankets 3 weeks ago. The target date was to finish them yesterday, however we had a lot of slow knitters and most of our women didn't finish. I explained to the group we can start another knitting project as soon as everyone finishes their blankets. There were some groans. They want to start on their baby dresses already next week. My rationing is that they get discounted material from DHF, we want to see them finish their projects and not have 1/2 done baby blankets sitting in corners of houses waiting to be finished. We want to see them all the way through their project, no matter how tough it may be, until they use start using their blanket or get ready to sell it. Tough Love.

After my knitting session I ran to the Hope House to see the last bit of jewelry class and finally witness our 3rd village bank this year, Mujeres Emprendedoras, move into their 2nd loan cycle.

Paz to all of you in your days of exercise ~ Nora