Pro Mujer

Pro Mujer (PMI) is a nonprofit development organization founded in 1990 in El Alto, Bolivia, dedicated to providing women in Latin America with microfinance financial, health, and human development services to break the cycle of poverty.^[1] The organization has provided women living in impoverished communities in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru, with easy and convenient access to a holistic package of services that includes Financial services: Small loans, savings, insurance etc, business, empowerment and health training: Financial literacy, life skills and preventive health education., high-quality, low-cost primary healthcare: Screenings and treatment, particularly for chronic diseases such as diabetes, breast and cervical cancers, hypertension.

Pro Mujer's international headquarters are located in New York City. PMI supports the organization's national, regional and local operations in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. This makes it possible to centralize administration for development programs and international cooperation and optimizes the considerable financial, human and material resources required.

Mission

Pro Mujer provides poor women in Latin America with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through microfinance, business training and health care support.^[1]

History

Pro Mujer was founded in 1990 in El Alto, Bolivia by two school teachers, Lynne Patterson, an American, and Carmen Velasco, a Bolivian. They first crossed paths in 1989 in La Paz, Bolivia, the capital of what remains to this day as the poorest country in South America. Their initial training programs focused on helping women develop invaluable life skills in business, health and leadership. Patterson and Velasco believed that women were key to breaking the cycle of poverty. in order to do this, women first needed to be the leading protagonists of their own live and needed easy and convenient access to basic human services.^[1][2] Patterson and Velasco provided a space where women could connect with one another for mutual support and encouragement. It was not long before the women they served told them that they desperately needed access to capital in order to put theory into practice.

Financing

A small grant from USAID {{when]}} allowed Patterson and Velasco to add financial services to their offerings, while similar support from the Bolivian government enabled them to maintain their health and human development services. This became Pro Mujer’s holistic platform for helping women break the cycle of poverty.

At that time, the microfinance movement was burgeoning and industry leaders told them to eliminate the health and human development components and focus solely on microfinance, but the advice went unheeded. The communities continued to embraced their grassroots initiatives and in 1996 they replicated their program in Nicaragua, in 1997 established Pro Mujer’s international headquarters in New York City and to entered new countries in an effort to reach impoverished women (1999) in Peru, in 2001 in Mexico and in 2005 in Argentina. In 2006, the Gates Foundation awarded Pro Mujer $3.1 Million-. ^[3] To Develop Innovative Microcredit Products In September 2007, American International Group, Inc. (AIG) awarded Pro Mujer a US$1 million grant over three-years to finance their loan portfolio.^[4]

As of 2011, Pro Mujer had disbursed more than US$1 billion in small loans, averaging $407 in 2011. In addition to financial services, such as savings, loans and insurance, Pro Mujer provided business and empowerment training, preventive health education and primary healthcare services to approximately 1.6 million women and their 6.4 million children and family members.^[1]

References