Rosario Silverio Garcia lives in the community of Hato Mayor with her husband, with whom she has three children and six grandchildren. Rosario is a relatively new Associate of Esperanza, however has proven to be an exceptional business woman, and an enabler within her local community.
For many years, Rosario and her husband have owned a home through which they rent to tenants for varying lengths of time. Through the savings of this small business, Rosario has been able to invest in a business of her own of selling used clothes and undergarments throughout her community. Rosario spends the work week maintaining her home and rental rooms, and then focuses on her clothing resale business during the weekends. Rosario says that she purposely designed her schedule this way so that she could manage her prior duties, while also creating sufficient time invest in her business.
Rosario has taken out three loans from Esperanza of $10,000 Dominican pesos, approximately, $233 USD. She hope to to receive a larger loan of $12,000 pesos, which would allow her to increase her inventory a small amount and make more sales.
When speaking of her business experience, Rosario repeatedly emphasized the importance of planning and trust. Rosario recognizes that many of her clients in her new business are poor, and that they do not always have the resources to pay on time. Therefore, in order to make sales, she often must offer them credit and wait until they are able to complete their payment. Of course, Rosario knows that offering credit creates the liability that her clients will not repay her, making the process difficult to navigate at times. However, despite the risk, Rosario continues to offer credit because, “If you don´t trust in people, you don´t sell.”
When looking towards the future, Rosario hopes for her business to grow and have an established site. She plans to continue working with Esperanza, because she believes that, “Esperanza is a very good form of help because it allows one to progress.”
Microfinance is a banking service which exists to serve the material poor in emerging economies. Through this lending process, loans are distributed to entrepreneurs for investment in their business.
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