The spirit of opportunity: as the OAS observes 2010 as the Inter-American Year of Women, we look at how women are strengthening livelihoods and improving the quality of life for themselves and their families.

Pro-Mujer: Empowering Women in Latin America

by Lynne Patterson

Photographs courtesy of Pro Mujer

In the late eighties, I moved to El Alto, Bolivia, and came face to face with overwhelming poverty and hunger. I saw in particular the devastating effects of poverty on the lives of women. In Latin America, and all over the world, women are the most vulnerable and undervalued members of society. Women perform 66 percent of the world's work, but for the most part their labors go unrecognized and unremunerated. Women, who account for approximately 70 percent of the world's poor, suffer terribly from poverty and its consequences: violence, disease, hunger, and ignorance.

When I met Carmen Velasco, a Bolivian professor of psychology, we discovered our shared passion for alleviating poverty through empowering women, and together we committed to making a difference in the lives of poor women and their families.

Pro Mujer, the organization we founded in 1990, is a micro-finance and women's development organization that provides poor women in Latin America with an integrated package of financial services, healthcare, and training to lift them and their families out of poverty.

Our unique integrated approach--one that combines financial services, healthcare, and education--grew out of listening to the women we serve. When Carmen and I first began meeting with groups of women in Bolivia, we offered them training on health and self-esteem. Then, in response to the women's request for small loans, we added financial services. We added healthcare when we realized that in Bolivia and other countries, our clients did not have access to affordable and adequate health services. We learned the lesson that has driven our organization for the past two decades: poverty is multidimensional, so our approach to combating poverty must be multi-dimensional as well.

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Unlike many other micro-finance organizations, Pro Mujer's focus is on women. Studies show that women and girls invest 90 percent of their income in their families, whereas men invest only 30 to 40 percent. When women have resources, they invest them in their children. When they have decision making power, they use it to benefit their families. And when they have positions of leadership, they use them to promote the well-being of their communities.

Everything we do has a strong gender focus because we want women to become leaders and decision makers, role models for their sons and daughters, partners with their husbands, and respected family and community members. Our goal is to empower women to become agents of change in their homes and communities.

Pro Mujer's methodology is designed to change the way women think about themselves.

All new clients, for example, are required to form their own communal banks, or peer groups, of 20 to 30 women who guarantee each other's loans. The women name their communal bank, which promotes ownership and group identity. They also elect a board of directors responsible for running group meetings and solving problems that may arise, and this fosters leadership-building and self-confidence. Holding a leadership position in a communal bank often leads women to seek leadership positions in their communities.

The meetings, during which women receive and repay their loans, provide a safe space for women to express themselves openly and develop confidence in their ability to succeed. The group support that women receive from fellow communal bank members nurtures their growth and helps them redefine relationships with their families and friends.

Another factor that distinguishes Pro Mujer from other organizations is the way it uses group meetings to educate women about their health. Health training focuses on the prevention of illness through good health practices, such as nutrition, hygiene, and protection against sexually transmitted diseases.

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We also link all clients with health services, whether at our own in-house clinics or through alliances with other healthcare providers. Our goal is for all of our clients to access healthcare for themselves and their children. In Nicaragua, for example, we place great emphasis on the importance of getting a pap exam twice a year, because cervical cancer is one of the primary threats to women's health in that country.

Ana García, a Pro Mujer client in Nicaragua, learned she had cervical cancer after getting a pap exam at one of Pro Mujer's health clinics. Ana, the mother of two young children, was the only caregiver of her family. Thanks to Pro Mujer's agreement with a local hospital, Ana got immediate attention and recovered completely. Today, she is back at the market selling fish and other seafood, bringing in the income her family needs to survive.

This year we are carrying out two health...