Microcredit
Mujeres en Accion
GUATEMALA

Felipa Xico wanted to help the many widows left without a means of support due to civil war and government repression in Guatemala during the 1980s. Starting by organizing weaving groups of Maya woman to produce and sell their traditional textiles, she went on to found Mujeres en Acción that has become a strong micro-credit organization. It now has 40 groups with over a 1000 members receiving small business loans.

Since Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank were awarded the Noble Peace Prize in 2006, the importance of microfinance has gained international prominence. This has enabled Mujeres en Acción to get funds for giving more loans, but reporting to donor agencies became a problem. They needed to report using computer accounting program, QuickBooks Pro. Their accountant who could do this was hired away by another organization. Dick Williams, enthusiastic professor and EPIC's treasurer, went to Guatemala and gave 6 days of classes on accounting using Quick Books Pro. His course was attended by six Mujeres staff and five persons from other NGOs. Dick said he has seldom had such attentive, hard working students.