The Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus program offers non-formal education and small loans to the women of Guatemala for the establishment or expansion of a small business. Our average loan size is $318 and loan terms are 6-12 months. with a 2% flat interest rate. Friendship Bridge borrowers typically start or expand small businesses such as weaving, embroidery, raising livestock or poultry, basket making, roadside vending, or growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Profits from these businesses boost overall household income. As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned. The reinvestment of loan funds multiplies the impact of each dollar loaned.

      
The benefits of Microcredit include:
•    A greater ability to weather economic shocks, such as illness or natural

      disaster
•    Decreased malnutrition
•    Decreased spousal abuse
•    Improved hygiene and health care
•    Increased number of children attending school, especially girls
•    Increased support, camaraderie, and self-esteem among borrowers
•    Increased level of family planning (borrowers are 50% more likely

      to have fewer children)      
 
Through Friendship Bridge's Microcredit Plus Program, women form groups of 7-25 members. This group becomes a Trust Bank that develops business plans together, co-guarantees individual member's loans, and participates in the non-formal education sessions that are part of every repayment meeting.

Each Trust Bank elects an executive committee that includes a president, vice-president, treasurer, secretary, and sometimes an at-large member. Elections are held at the beginning of each loan cycle. This elected group is responsible for the management and leadership of the group. They problem solve when there are attendance or repayment issues with individual members, they work with the facilitator (loan officer) to conduct effective meetings, and they handle banking (make deposits into and withdrawals out of their account) on behalf of the group.