Press Center

Welcome! Friendship Bridge is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit social enterprise with a mission to create opportunities that empower Guatemalan women to build a better life. Established in 1990 and headquartered in Lakewood, Colorado, Friendship Bridge operates 13 branch offices in Guatemala and provides a suite of products and services including microcredit, Non-Formal Education, and access to culturally-appropriate healthcare. Clients are 100% women, primarily Indigenous Maya, and live in rural communities with some of the highest poverty levels worldwide.

History

Friendship Bridge’s history began with its work in Vietnam providing medical education and shipping medical supplies to impoverished populations in war-ravaged areas. While medical supplies were positively impacting the lives of recipients, Friendship Bridge was looking for a more sustainable solution to poverty reduction—the solution was microcredit. In 1994, we shifted our focus from medical supplies to microcredit and began offering small loans to impoverished women. Our clients, indigenous women who were deemed ‘unbankable,’ started or expanded small businesses and began creating their own sustainable solutions to poverty.
In 1998, Friendship Bridge expanded its work to Guatemala, another war-ravaged country suffering extreme poverty and offering limited opportunities to women. Friendship Bridge shifted out of Vietnam as operations in Vietnam became unsustainable due to an unfavorable political climate. Focusing solely on Guatemala, and aided by investment from American donors, the seeds of our programs today were planted. By 2003, almost 3,000 clients were borrowing from Friendship Bridge. By 2006 the number tripled to 9,000 clients, and today we reach nearly 37,000 women through our programs.

Why Guatemala?

Despite Guatemala’s solid economic growth in recent years and the sustained efforts by the country, Guatemala still faces significant challenges in reducing poverty and inequality, which continue to affect a significant portion of the population. In 2024, 57.3% of Guatemalans lived in poverty, with projections showing a trend of gradual improvement to 56.6% in 2026, reflecting minimal progress. One persistent challenge is the low availability of formal employment, which limits opportunities for sustainable income generation; in 2023, about 80% of the employed population worked in the informal sector. This challenge is compounded for women when taking into consideration the intersectionality of other socio-economic factors.

Why women?

Guatemala remains one of the most gender-unequal countries in the world, with women facing persistent barriers to education, employment, and financial inclusion. Friendship Bridge works primarily with Indigenous women in rural Guatemala, where poverty is most severe. According to the World Bank, around 70% of rural Guatemalans live below the national poverty line—nearly 14 percentage points higher than the national average.

For Indigenous women, the situation is even more pronounced: overlapping barriers of gender, ethnicity, and geography mean many are excluded from accessing healthcare and education and lack significant representation in the government. With 22 Indigenous Mayan languages spoken among our clients—but with all formal banking, business, legal, and governmental activity in the country conducted in Spanish—many women are kept from fully participating in economic and civic life beyond their local communities.

Images

Photo credit: Friendship Bridge

Photos provided on request.