First Meetings in Costa Rica

Today we met with both my old professor, Carlos Sandoval Garcia, and Kenlor Howells, Executive Director of ADAPTE (Asociación de Ayuda al Pequeño Trabajador y Empresario- Association for Helping Small Businesses and Entrepeneurs). Carlos is our contact for the La Carpio High School Project, and Kenlor obviously for our microcredit project.

1. Meeting With Carlos:
He explained to us the need for the high school, and invited us to take a look around the temporary location in La Carpio this week. The school is being hosted at La Carpio's Lutheran Church for its first two years, until they can find a larger/more permanent site- the Catholic Church would be perfect, but the priest there is apparently very conservative and narrow minded, and doesn't think a high school is a good use of space....too bad. Building a new building is almost out of the question, as there isn't really anywhere else to build. The settlement is surrounded by two rivers and a garbage dump, and it has pretty much reached its limits.

The plans for the high school are as follows: In February, in time for the new school year, the Lutheran Church will be the first high school in the community. It will start out with two sections of first years (around age 13), about 60 students in total. Each year they will take on new students, and eventually expand to a secondary school serving young people from 7th grade to 12th grade.

Right now, they are running tight on resources. We are helping to raise $1000 for books and school supplies. If you are moved to donate, you can do so in the entry below. Thank you!!

2. Meeting with Kenlor (ADAPTE)
This was EXCELLENT. ADAPTE is 1 of only 30 MFIs in Costa Rica. Furthermore, it is 1 of only 4 MFIs that have a social mission, the rest are simply banks. Even more interesting, ADAPTE is the ONLY MFI in Costa Rica that serves the poorest of the poor- the others only work with middle class workers. They charge only 22%-28% interest anually on their loans, as Costa Rican law caps all interest at 30%. They have an excellent success rate. The best part about ADAPTE- they conduct a comprehensive, 12 week training program for their borrowers. We saw some of the training materials- very impressive. Kenlor gave us testimonials, and explained that their model is extremely successful because of this training program.

So, why are there so few MFIs in CR?
According to Kenlor, its because the world of microfinance, at some point 20 years ago, decided that Costa Rica was no longer a poor country, and that resources were better needed elsewhere. Prior to that, there were 3,000 MFIs here. Now there are 30. But, as Kenlor reminded us, it is not true that there aren't poor people here. We have to remind the microfinance world of this.

How can RSA work with ADAPTE in the future?
My idea was to support the training program, so that their clients did not have to pay. Kenlor liked this idea very much. We also spoke about doing a sort of "Kiva model" with them- financing their microcredits through our website. He also loved this idea, and is willing to work with us. He said he is also filling out papers with Kiva to begin working with them, but he would work with us as well.

This week, we will take a trip to La Carpio, as well as meet with Karina Fonseca to hopefully connect our women borrowers in this community with ADAPTE for our pilot project.

So far, so good!

Sarah