En Via MicroFinance Tour

On Friday, we went to En Via's 'office', a desk on the patio of an English school in the Cultural Institute of Oaxaca grounds.  Mom and I booked our tour for the next morning.  We were lucky, they had added an extra group for the next day.  I guess this tour is very popular.  

This is their logo (I really want the t-shirt but they are sold out!)

I had heard about En Via's tour from one of the bird group ladies.  And then I saw it on Oaxaca Events.  I had no idea what exactly it was but I convinced mom to join me. 

So, En Via.  To start with the basics, microfinancing is when someone is able to borrow small amounts of money, usually too small for a bank to handle, to start or expand a small business.  For example, when I was in Africa, one microloan I heard about was a woman who needed enough money to buy a barrel of cooking oil. She then divided that barrel into small litre bottles and sold them for a profit.  That profit financed the next barrel and over time she would be able to pay back the loan and earn a living.  Loans can be for as little as a few dollars. 

Our guide Ellie explained that some microfinancing companies can actually charge from 70 to 300% annual interest (compounding weekly!).  Of course, this is not necessarily gouging, microloans have no collateral, and they are hard to collect because the borrowers are off the grid and have to be contacted in person, from far and wide.  But it does make it difficult for the borrowers to keep up with their payments.

En Via was started 10 or so years ago with a new vision/plan.  They would fund their microloans by offering 'responsible tourism' tours to earn the money needed for the program.  Tourists pay 850 pesos and they get to go meet the borrowers who will give a little presentation of what their business is and how they used their loan.  Of that 850, 70 goes for lunch (provided by a En Via borrower), 120 goes to transportation (van, driver and gas) and the rest goes to finance the microloans and education.  Because the loans are 'financed' by the tours, En Via is able to offer the loans interest free! 

They only loan to women.  Each woman has to form a team with two other women.  Ellie says the teams of three helps to keep everyone accountable, on track and they can support each other.  Each member of each team has to take eight free business classes before they can get their first small loans.  They learn basics such as idea development, saving for low season, business development, interest, reinvesting into their business etc.

Each member of the team starts with a loan of 1500 pesos only.  That's only a $100 (Can).  They all have to keep up their payments of 20-100 pesos a month (week?).  If one can't pay, they are all on the hook.  Ellie says between 2014 and 2017 they had a 99.7% loan repayment rate.  That's pretty amazing.  Once they all pay off their loan, they can take out another loan, each time a bit more if they need it, up to 7500 pesos.  But all three have to want to keep going.  If one leaves the team, the other two have to find a new partner and start back at the beginning.

We met 6 women. We got some ground rules in the van on the way.  We were encouraged to ask questions about their businesses.  Be respectful (obviously).  We can buy their products but we do not have to, our contribution to their business is the tour.  If we do buy something, no haggling.  They have learned in their business classes how to price their wares fairly and it isn't fair to undermine that (especially, I assume, with the perceived power imbalance). We started with the first two in San Miguel de Valle.  Here they are:

Carmela. 

Carmela by her cold oven and empty bread shelves.

Poor Carmela.  She has had multiple loans to get her bakery started.  Her last loan was to fix the chimney of the bread oven.  But, and I don't really understand this so forgive me, her husband has been 'drafted' to work for their community for a year (or more!) unpaid.  So, from what I understand, in some small Oaxacan Zapotec villages the people live with 'uses and customs' laws.  Community members do service for the community so they don't have to rely on the state.  Please read this because it is fairly fascinating. 

Anyway, Carmela's husband is working on the water system.  He can't work in the bakery and she can't run it alone.  So, no bakery for a year.  But as part of her loan, Carmela has to host the tour group, in this case, our group.  So no baked goods.  She is keeping up her household and her loan by helping her daughter with her weaving business. 

Demonstrating how she uses the oven

Mom trying to buy some woven coasters but Carmela didn't have
her daughter's price list so she couldn't sell us any of her daughter's weaving

Paulina:

Paulina at her loom, with her rugs in the background.

Paulina used to weave her rugs and then sell them to a wholesaler for way undervalue.  She would earn 100 pesos (7 bucks!) for one blanket which took two days to weave!.  Her loan allowed her to buy wool and supplies in bulk.  And her business classes taught her how to sell them herself!  Yay!  Her blankets were for sale for around 700 pesos, a much better deal for her and her family than 100 pesos.  I bought a bird hanging thing.

Mom learning to weave

Paulina with my wall hanging

After we met with Paulina, we headed to Teotitlan. 

Conchita:

Conchita in her restaurant, about to serve us our buffet lunch.

We had lunch at Conchita's restaurant, which she opened with En Via loans.  She was just making us lunch, she was not technically part of the tour so no presentation required by Conchita. But lunch was amazing.  We had fried chicken, chilis relleno, rice, beans, salads, tacos, mole sauce, and more.  We were all stuffed by the end of lunch.

Conchita with her daughter (granddaughter?)

Before we went on to our next group of three, we stopped at the church in Teotitlan.  It was so full of flowers it smelled like a perfumed garden (in a good way).  Here are some pictures, despite my poor track record for photos in churches (this one was a bit brighter so there may be hope?)

Eloisa:

Eloisa in her gift shop

Eloisa's family are weavers (I think everyone in Teotitlan is a weaver) and they run a hostel.  So Eloisa got her loan to open a little gift shop in the hostel to sell their weaving and other crafts from the town.

She has a three year old and a 10 month old.  Her husband wove that awesome blue rug on the wall which Ruth, our interpreter/guide bought.  I was very jealous!

Her goal for her next loan is to open an organic restaurant and to sell organic groceries.  She already has the space, now she needs to start buying equipment. She is only 26 so good on her!

Eloisa and her very cheeky baby

Magdalena:

Magdalena was as tiny as a peanut.  Here she is with her
little baggies of chocolates for use to taste/buy.

Magdalena is Eloisa's grandmother (abuela).  Her business is making chocolate.  She has probably been doing this her whole life but she used the business classes and additional speciality classes to learn how to make her chocolate more marketable.  For example, adding new flavours such as vanilla, peanuts and spices.  We got samples, so YES! 

Magdalena putting my mole/hot chocolate paste into a bag for me.

Alicia:

Alicia with her mother and sister behind her.

Alicia's family are, you guessed it, weavers.  There are five daughters.  FIVE!  Alicia is in the group of three with Eloisa and Magdalena.  She used her loan to start making aprons.   She bought cloth in bulk so she could make enough to sell.  She hand embroiders them.  Plus, in some of her 'extra' business classes, she learned how to make their weaving into purses.  So, now they sell rugs, purses and aprons.  They have been able to buy new equipment with the loans as well.  Next loan is to buy a computer because she is learning, through En Via classes, about selling her products on the internet.  Her sisters are considering creating their own group of three.   I bought a pillow case (any maybe another purse but you can't prove it).

Alicia's aprons

Alicia and her mom and two sisters

A chicken in their yard

And here are Ellie and Ruth.  They were excellent guides.  Both of them are volunteers with En Via.  Ellie is an intern and Ruth is an interpreter but really, they do every job as En Via is a small team, run mostly by volunteers.

What an awesome day!  I highly encourage anyone who is in Oaxaca to go.  

Here is one street art: