Went Looking for Business Cards. Found Hope.

Today my task was to print some Vittana business cards. To be sure, I got the business cards made. But more importantly, today I met a family who perfectly exemplifies why Vittana’s mission, our MFI partners’ work and our lenders’ dollars are just so important. If you’re needing a little inspiration or a reminder about why you became interested in Vittana’s work, this post is for you!

Here’s how my day went:

I was wandering through the streets of Huaraz, Peru (a mid-sized town in the Northern Andes) looking for a place to do some printing. Print and copy shops are a dime a dozen here, but one shop in particular caught my eye. It was bigger than the rest, and when I walked in, I was welcomed with smiles.

A young and friendly guy named Daniel was assisting me with my order. I was trying to translate the Vittana tagline “Students in school. One loan at a time” into Spanish. It wasn’t going well, so I asked for his help. He said, “Yep… that doesn’t make sense in Spanish. What are you trying to say?”

So we started talking about Vittana. I told him how I was in Peru to learn more about their education system and to understand how Vittana and our MFI partners might bring more education loans to young people who wanted to go to college.

Left to right: Daniel, Leonarde, Katie, and Herminia, discussing education in Herminia’s print shop. Huaraz, Peru.

Quite the conversation starter
Daniel’s eyes widened. His colleague (Jean Louis) who was working on an adjacent computer perked up as well. Another young man (Leonarde) who was wrestling with a jammed printer also turned to look at me. Obviously, I’d hit upon a hot topic. All three pulled up chairs close to me and the conversation began in earnest.

I started with the basics and asked them if they wanted to go to college. “Claro! (Of course!)” was their response. When I asked what job they wanted if they were able to go to college, Jean Louis (23) said he’d like to be a chef. “Me gusta comida” (I love food!) he said without a hint of sarcasm. He said that a college course to become a chef was at least three years, more if you wanted to have a specialty (like baking, international cuisine, etc.). Leonarde (also in his early twenties) said that he’s like to learn more about computers and alluded to getting a certificate in graphic design. At the print shop, they have just one employee with design experience, and he gets to do all the art work for the posters and signs they create. Leonarde would like to be able to start doing that work as well, in addition to the photocopying that is his current responsibility.

Entrepreneurism runs in the family
Daniel’s response was the most interesting. At 21, he’s already the manager of the print store. His mother, Herminia (who by this time had also pulled up a chair and joined our conversation), started the business years ago with just a single photocopier. Over the years, in the true spirit of entrepreneurism, “poco a poco” (little by little) she has built the business into what it is today – a full service print shop with four employees. Just nine months ago, she moved the business into a larger space (twice the size of most print shops) and bought a huge banner printer so now they can bring in even bigger clients. Obviously proud of her son, she says, “I’m the owner, but he (Daniel) runs the store.”

I was curious to hear about Daniel’s dreams for the future. He already had a good job, but the glimmer in his eye told me that he was hoping for something more. When I asked Daniel what he’d like to be, he said he’d like to become a lawyer. I thought, “That’s nice. A good, steady job where he’d certainly be able to make a lot of money.” But as he continued, I realized that his desire to become a lawyer went way beyond just wanting to make a good wage.

“I want to be a lawyer because then I can help businesses like my mother’s. It’s so hard to work through the system when you don’t have someone negotiating for you. If I were a lawyer, I could make sure my mother’s business was running well, and that other small businesses like this were able to make good negotiations, so they won’t be taken advantage of.”

Wow. That struck home.

More than just the money
Higher education isn’t just about a higher wage. It’s also about social justice and social equality. If the poor (or any specific sector of a population) aren’t able to go to school, they are more easily underserved, they are more easily ignored, they are more easily mistreated.

Consider the similar issue of gender equity in the United States. Before women were allowed or encouraged to go to college, their rights were hampered across the board. They made miniscule wages compared to men. They were under-represented in all important aspects of politics, academia and media. Their voice, their perspecitve and their needs were at best ignored, at worst ridiculed. Once women were able to attain higher levels of education, the whole playing field started to change. It may not be perfect yet, but gender equity is no longer a foreign concept and we’re certainly moving in the right direction. No one is telling Hillary Clinton or Oprah Winfrey or Melinda Gates to go sit in a corner and be quiet.

Daniel sees education as holding the same possibility for him. Daniel wants to become a lawyer because he sees a need in his community. He knows how hard it is to get ahead if when you have no advocate, no voice, no respect from the “powers that be”. By becoming a lawyer, he sees himself as a possible solution to some of these problems. Unfortunately, the one thing stopping Daniel from reaching his goal, is his lack of access to capital. The seven years of school needed to become a lawyer would cost Daniel 120,000 Peruvian soles ($42,000 USD). This amount of money is almost incomprehensible to Daniel, his mother and his friends at the shop.

We talked about this a bit.

Dramatic lack of access in Peru
I asked, “So, is it possible for you to get a loan?” Daniel laughed. He said, “I could go to a bank and try to get a loan for even 5,000 soles (~$1,700 USD) to start with my first years of college. However, in order to get approved I’d need a college diploma, a steady job and a house or land for collateral.”

Daniel looked at me, his eyes serious now, and said, “What 18 year old kid do you know who has all three of those things? None of course. That’s why none of us can go to college.” It’s beyond a Catch-22 — Daniel would need a college diploma to get a student loan to get a college diploma. Though Vittana wouldn’t be able to help Daniel get a $42,000 loan to become a lawyer, Vittana and its lenders definitely can fund a $1,700 loan for college.

This commentary alludes to greater social issues. If only people with diplomas and collateral can get bank loans, then really it’s only the rich who can “afford” to get even farther ahead. If you’re a young person and your parents haven’t been to college or don’t own their home, they can’t take a loan out for you. It sort of dashes your hopes before they’ve even had much time to blossom. The whole idea of going to college just seems “too big” to consider with too much seriousness when these are the types of obstacles you face.

As I got up and got ready to go, Daniel and Jean Louis said to me, “When you go to Lima to talk to the bank (EDAPROSPO), tell them if they come to Huaraz, we’ll be their first customers. We promise we’ll work very hard.”

Energized
With that, Daniel became my flesh-and-blood reason for me to get back to work, for me to try to help our MFI partners expand and suceed, for me to energetically recruit new lenders to support Vittana. His potential is so great, and the possibilities of what he can do, not just for himself and his family, but for his country and for the world, are so huge, that I can’t NOT be energized by this work. And Daniel is just one of millions of eager, smart, enthusiastic and hopeful individuals. And THAT is worth getting out of bed in the morning.

Tagged as: catch22, education, peru, social justice, sustainable economic development, Vittana, vittana loan