Fondo Esperanza
in the Chilean context
FONDO ESPERANZA is a microfinance entity focused on the socioeconomic development of entrepreneurs who are in vulnerable sectors in Chile.
This entity supports entrepreneurship by granting microcredits to those people who live in poverty or vulnerability in order to improve their family’s and their own life conditions. Thanks to the village banking methodology, it currently supports more than 60,000 women entrepreneurs who come from 197 municipalities from Iquique to Chiloé. They are mainly women living in an urban environment who are facing a deep economic insecurity.
Fondo Esperanza stands out because it offers an all-round service for all its entrepreneurs. It consists of complementing the microcredits they grant with (i) a training workshop, and (ii) the promotion of social networks to promote commercial and human development.
Fondo Esperanza assists entrepreneurs with CLP 50,000 thousands median income in a country where the average is CLP 495,000 thousands. It assists clients whose levels of education are basic and who live in city centres where the poverty impact is bigger.
It must be said that 60% of the clients assisted by Fondo Esperanza get incomes below the poverty line in the country. Fondo Esperanza is inheritor of the foundation called Fundación de Beneficiencia Ayuda y Esperanza. This foundation began to grant individual credits in 2001. From 2003, it has been focused on the Village Banking that works by making groups with the clients working in the same sector. The special characteristic is shown in the fact that they voluntarily guarantee themselves when there is an approval of a group credit.
Since May 2011, the alliance between Fondo Esperanza and BBVA Microfinance Foundation, has leaded to the new entity, called Fondo Esperanza SPA, whose objective is to strengthen their activity by providing assistance to those vulnerable people having entrepreneurial skills and who are mainly women.
Sandra Estay