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Pro Mujer Joins Forces with Habitat for Humanity in Argentina

16 diciembre, 2011

Blog, Events, Partners, Voices from the Field

In February of this year, Pro Mujer in Argentina and Habitat for Humanity joined forces to provide support and housing solutions to families in need. As a result of this agreement, On August 7th, as a result of this agreement, Pro Mujer launched a new loan product aimed at improving the homes of our clients while Habitat for Humanity provided its technical expertise.

This new product is part of a pilot project whose objective is to provide clients with progressive housing solutions and in this way improve their quality of life and that of their families. The goal of the pilot is to reach 100 families in the city of Salta and provide training to 500 families through workshops run by Habitat for Humanity, which will cover topics such as the importance of housing, financial education, and home improvement administration.

Staff members from Pro Mujer and Habitat for Humanity (in blue) at the pilot’s kick-off event

This innovative partnership, which received financial support from Citi, combined the methodologies of communal development, home improvement and volunteers from Habitat for Humanity with experience in microcredit and a group of Pro Mujer clients.

Celina Malvazo, the leader of the project on behalf of Habitat for Humanity, explained that the objective is “for more families in the north of Argentina to be able to improve their living conditions, and most importantly, to renew their belief in their ability to do so”.

Pro Mujer staffers with one of the beneficiaries of this new loan product.

On Thursday, November 24th, an event was held in Salta marking the pilot’s culmination. During the afternoon a group of supporters and clients of Pro Mujer were recognized for their good performance over the course of the pilot. Clients had the opportunity to share their home improvement experiences with event attendees, which included staff and volunteers from Pro Mujer, Habitat for Humanity and Citi.

The credit was geared toward long-time clients of Pro Mujer with good performance records with the organization, as a way to recognize their excellent loan repayment history. The pilot program benefited a total of 63 families and disbursed $277,436 Argentinian pesos or approximately US$64,700.

To learn more about this agreement, check out a blog post (in Spanish) by Habitat for Humanity Argentina.