Work is the grand cure of all the maladies and miseries that ever beset mankind – Thomas Carlyle, Scottish historian and essayist
According to the 1984 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, work is a basic human right that implies access to equal and adequate working conditions. However, to this day, there are still barriers that prevent people from accessing a decent job.
Every 1st of May, the International Worker’s Day is celebrated to commemorate the workers’ uprising in the United States in 1886. At present, the International Labour Organization’s 2017 data reveal that 200 million people around the world do not have a job, and 26.5 million of them are concentrated in the Latin American and the Caribbean region.
To curtail this figure and promote the social and economic development of vulnerable people, entrepreneurship is key. This is the BBVA Microfinance Foundation’s mission, turned to reality through 4,000 credit officers who work in six microfinance institutions in Latin America.
These officers travel by motorbike, bus or walk when needed, to reach places where nobody else does. This way, they get closer to entrepreneurs and personally attend to their financing needs. This is a task that they eagerly carry out, especially when time shows them that “they help people escape poverty and improve their lives”. This is what Daniel shares, as a credit officer of the Foundation’s Dominican institution (Banco Adopem). He also says that his greatest satisfaction is “to see people grow”.
Daniel Aguiar, credit officer from Banco Adopem
Karen, from the BBVAMF’s Chilean institution (Fondo Esperanza), feels the same. “At the end of the day, my greatest reward is knowing that something good has been done. It’s the fact that I go about with a heart full of love for the people I serve; people who are committed to their projects and are aspiring to move forward”, she explains.
All of them work at the grassroots level and bring financial products and services closer to people who need it the most. These people progress thanks to their hard work, toiling from sunrise to sundown to support their families. It doesn’t matter whether they live in a city 3,000 feet above sea level, all are reached by thousands of officers who get to the remotest areas to serve them.
This is why, during the celebration of the International Worker’s Day, we would like to give thanks: on one hand, to the Foundation’s credit officers who individually do their part to help many people escape poverty. On the other hand, we also thank the entrepreneurs who strive day by day to keep moving forward until they reach their goals. They are the reason why more than 8,000 employees of the BBVA Microfinance Group work with full dedication to the mission.