Organization: Pro Mujer

All Photos Pro Mujer is an international microfinance and women's development organization whose mission is to provide poor women in Latin America with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through microfinance, business training, and healthcare support. Pro Mujer fights poverty by providing an integrated package of financial and human development services that women require to build and improve their businesses.

Focus Areas:	Economic Development, Health, Human Rights, Poverty, Gender & Equality, Microfinance
Countries Served:	Argentina Bolivia Mexico Nicaragua Peru

Description of Services:
Pro Mujer's communal bank methodology is designed specifically to empower poor women to be more effective in all areas of their lives' at home, at work and in their communities. Reinforced by their successful use of credit and the solidarity with peers in their communal association, the women become aware of the vast possibilities for improvement in their lives. All Pro Mujer country programs provide training in health and empowerment, and link women and their families with health services. Pro Mujer's focal centers, where clients meet on a regular basis to repay their loan installments, offer an ideal base for education programs covering family planning, domestic violence, nutrition, hygiene and good health practices, among others.
History:
Pro Mujer establishes and develops microfinance institutions in Latin America that provide an integrated credit and training program for poor women microentrepreneurs. Pro Mujer developed its communal association methodology in Bolivia in 1990 and has successfully replicated the model in Nicaragua (1996), Peru (1997), Mexico (2001) and Argentina (2005). Over the last seventeen years Pro Mujer's microfinance institutions have disbursed $742 million in small loans -ranging from $50 to $1,000, with an average loan of $297. Pro Mujer clients are encouraged to save; currently, these women have saved $15.3 million in individual accounts providing a financial buffer for their families in times of crises.
Accomplishments & Progress:
Fall 2009 - Pro Mujer was named one of 13 programs that "will improve the lives of girls and women around the world" at the Fifth Annual Meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative. Pro Mujer was the only Latin American organization among the 13. Fall 2009 - Pro Mujer in Peru was awarded a ?Gold Social Performance Reporting Award? and Pro Mujer in Argentina, Bolivia and Nicaragua received a ?Silver Social Performance Reporting Award? from Consultative Group to Assist the Poor. The award recognizes excellence in ?reporting on changes observed in microfinance clients' poverty levels, consumer protection policies and other social indicators.?