Esperanza International

 

Who We Serve

Who We Serve is just as important as What We Do. It speaks to who we are as Esperanza International and it gets to the heart of the matter: people.

    Who We Serve

  • Mostly women: Women are generally more vulnerable and more disadvantaged but studies continue to prove that women are generally more responsible in regards to microfinance and income generating projects.They tend to think of their families first. When you help a young mother, you are actually helping the entire family.
  • The poorest of the poor: We believe in their potential. We work with those who lack hope because every door has closed on them but we are there to help provide hope and to give esperanza.
  • Those in the hard places: Formal banks won’t serve our associates due to a lack of collateral and in many cases are not willing to work in these isolated communities, places that have been systematically erased from the banks’ “client map”. Often, those who are willing to serve the materially poor charge extremely high interest rates and do not care for the security of the family. We choose to swim the waters with the loan sharks, because those we serve deserve better than 40% interest per month and living in fear of violent threats.

We empower women.

We serve in the communities that need us the most.

    In the Dominican Republic

  • 40% live below D.R. poverty line (not same as U.S. poverty line)**
  • 19% of girls age 15 to 19 are married/in union *
  • Over 1 million Haitian refugees living in the D.R. are not accounted for in national statistics. Most live at or under the international poverty line of $1.25/day ****
  • 52% of teenage boys attend High School *

    In Haiti

  • Almost 600,000 people are still in displacement camps after the January 2010 earthquake ***
  • 41% of adults are unemployed, and 2/3 do not have formal jobs **
  • 55% live in destitute poverty below the international poverty line of $1.25/day) *
  • 19% of Haitian teenagers attend High School *
  • 22% of boys and 19% of girls are working illegally *

Sources: * UNICEF, ** IndexMundi, *** IOM, **** DR Immigration