Here's a program that's built for hard times: The Bi-national Front of Indigenous Organizations (FIOB) is offering micro loans to members of Oaxacan immigrant communities in Los Angeles, San Diego and Fresno, providing financing for everything from start-up businesses to families scrambling to make the rent.
The FIOB Fund program operates from the group's offices in the Westlake district west of Downtown. Staffers there work in conjunction with an organization in Mexico called Ayúdate, which has been operating a similar program with members of 17 rural indigenous groups in the Mexican states of Puebla, Oaxaca and Michoacan for the past seven years.
"We work with many people who have family in the U.S.," said David Velasco, operations coordinator of Ayúdate. "That's how we got the idea to contact (FIOB) here in California to run a pilot program."
Velasco said the U.S. side of operations remains in a preliminary stage, with 139 loans of $500 each made over the past several months.
"We didn't expect to be granting credits in the U.S.," Velasco said, adding that he's been surprised by the demand from the Oaxacan community in Los Angeles.
Eva Rodriguez and her sister Ana are Zapotec immigrants who came to Los Angeles from San Pablo Yaganiza in Oaxaca. Each of the sisters recently requested a loan of $500 from the FIOB program — one to pay an urgent debt and the other to cover an emergency.
Eva Rodriguez said that she has no credit history, adding that the recent request to the FIOB program was first time she had ever sought a loan.
The Rodriguez sisters and others who seek the loans don't have to provide collateral — which is usually some personal property or asset that would be taken by the lender if payments are not made. But they do have to have some community support in the form of at least 10 individuals who will join together to guarantee payment. The community members who stand behind the borrower must provide a copy of their consular registration and proof of address.
The loans are made for a period of three months at a monthly interest rate of 4%. That means a borrower would have to pay back the $500 along with approximately $20 in interest.
Ayúdate get most of the interest to support the program, while a smaller portion goes to the FIOB, whose representatives say they will use their share to cover operating expenses and fund other community projects.
Eva Rodriguez — a mother of four who works in a dry cleaners — said that terms of her loan are not burdensome and the money provided much-needed relief in a financial pinch that arose between paychecks. She has even sought an increase in her credit to $1,000.
"There are things that must be paid," she said. "When it's the end of the month, the rent piles on and sometimes the paycheck is not enough and that's when you use the money."
FIOB's board of directors is currently considering increasing the limit of the loans to $1,000, according to Bertha Rodriguez, who serves as director of the FIOB fund.
Other goals for the fund, according to FIOB representatives, including making 1,000 loans by June, increasing amounts, and offering financing to indigenous immigrants who have established businesses or are starting new enterprises.
More info:
• Binational Front of Indigenous Organizations
Mireya Olivera is editor of Impulso.
Photos by Impulso.
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