What's Happening

By Lydia Shoaf
Content and Press Associate, Friendship Bridge

Yeiny, a young woman living in Huehuetenango, Guatemala, finished high school and started a family at a young age. But when her husband left, she found herself on her own with three school-age children to care for, in a country deeply rooted in gender inequality.

With 56% of Guatemala’s population living below the national poverty line and exceeding 70% poverty among rural, Indigenous populations, Yeiny knew she would have a tough road ahead. But she was determined to support her family. (Read more about the global gender gap and poverty and equity in Guatemala in reports prepared by the World Bank.) 

Committed to keeping her three children in school rather than dropping out to work (common among Guatemala’s impoverished families), Yeiny began selling fruit outside of a school. In order to improve her financial situation and grow her business, she became a client of Friendship Bridge, a nonprofit social enterprise that offers small loans to low-income women. 

Friendship Bridge serves women in Guatemala who couldn’t get a loan from a traditional bank. With an average loan of about $600 per person, women typically borrow money as a group in their local community, called a trust bank, to support one another and ensure they’ll be able to make their loan payments. Yeiny joined the Entre Alamos Trust Bank in Huehuetenango, and the money she received from her loan allowed her to reinvest in a new business selling dietary supplements.

The loan Yeiny received, however, was only a part of what Friendship Bridge offers to help women thrive. Each month, when it is time to make a payment on her loan, Yeiny attends a trust bank meeting where she learns from 30-minute non-formal education sessions on topics including business, money management, self-esteem, and health. Similar to adult education classes in the United States, non-formal education focuses on educating women so they can pass on what they learn to their children and other family members.

"It is important to know that in the face of all adversity, as women, we can get ahead together and respect each other,” Yeiny says.

Thanks to training offered through Friendship Bridge, Yeiny and her husband now operate a profitable bakery in Guatemala.

The Adrian Dominican Sisters have invested in Friendship Bridge since 2020, and recently refinanced and increased its investment. Such investments helped Friendship Bridge serve more than 36,000 women in 2024 with small loans paired with education and preventive health services, a program known as Microcredit Plus.

Yeiny has particularly appreciated learning about good investment and self-esteem. “The trainings have helped me a lot, both physically and mentally,” she says. “They have helped me know how to invest and make a percentage of profit and see if I can continue to invest in any other products.” 

In addition to learning how to be more responsible with money and to take care of herself, Yeiny built and furnished her own house. 

These skills carried over into other areas of Yeiny’s life as she remarried and grew her family. She and her husband now operate a bakery together, which has been very profitable. They employ three people and are continuously diversifying their services to earn more income.

“Friendship Bridge is not only about getting a loan, but it offers a lot of help, motivation, and learning,” Yeiny explains. “Thanks to God and this organization, my business is growing and my family is growing as well.”

 

Caption for feature photo at top: Through Friendship Bridge, groups of seven to 25 women from rural Guatemala borrow money together in a Trust Bank to invest in their small businesses. During Trust Bank meetings, members make loan payments and receive non-formal education sessions on topics such as money management, self-esteem, and health.