Empower Lending is an organization that provides small business loans to villagers in developing countries.
Communication has a tremendous impact on a person’s life—especially security, relationships, and justice. People cannot express their views or demand what is right if they do not have access to information outside of their own communities. Many local villagers in developing areas do not even have simple access to the internet so that they can share information and learn about the lives of others. It is also rare for an individual to own a computer. The costs are far greater than their monthly wages.
Fortunately, many local villagers have expressed interest in having computer rooms, not only to start businesses for themselves, but also provide outside information to their communities. They lack, however, the resources to create these facilities and the technical support necessary to maintain them such as software and hardware upgrades and troubleshooting. We started the organization initially to help them start internet cafes but our ideas have grown since then.
Empower Lending is also donating used computers and recently helped set up a school computer facility in San Andrés Semetabaj, Guatemala. Our hope is that we will have computer rooms for many other schools throughout Guatemala. As news of the computer room spread, several organizations asked us to help them with their technical issues and, in some cases, create websites. We constructed the very first website for Colegio Jesus Salva—a local school in San Andrés Semetabaj, Guatemala—and trained the students to update the information as necessary.
We have also found that women in these communities are the primary income earners but lack the resources to start a business. Our hope is that the Empower Lending funds can be used to help them start their own businesses and sell handcrafted and woven products such as towels, blankets, bags, etc. through our growing distribution network.
We are working together with our sponsors and investors to empower others to start their businesses so that they can be productive and impact their communities. We hope that you can join us to help make that difference and, through our collective effort, enable and empower others in developing areas to have a brighter future.