Unión MicroFinanza is now Aldea Development!

We've changed our name and moved our blog!

Keep reading our updates and stay connected with news from La Unión, Honduras: follow our new Aldea Development blog here.

Managing the microloans

While Unión MicroFinanza now offers various programs, including training and community development, the organization began with a microloan program for small-scale farmers. Overseeing this program in La Unión is José Martir Alvarado. Martir has been working with microloans for UMF for five years, and has been leading the program for four. 

Martir leads a microloan meeting in the village of Nueva Paz.

Twice a year, Martir prepares for microloan distribution by putting a price on dozens of products, receiving hundreds of farmer microloan applications, entering the information into our databases, and managing the microloan distribution.

Besides tracking the amount of fertilizer and agricultural tools each farmer receives in the form of a microloan, Martir holds microloan group meetings in the villages where interest and capital is paid on loans. Each microloan group meets every 15 days; a member of UMF leads the meetings not only to collect interest, but also to hear about how the farmers and their harvests are doing. After meetings, Martir spends time in the office entering all the payment information for each farmer in a computer to keep track of each loan’s interest and capital.

But, apart from working on the finances and numbers, Martir builds confidence and relationships with farmers during the microloan meetings. During discussions at meetings, Martir learns how farmers’ families and farms have been since he last saw them, and he offers advice or resources. 

Martir also leads the engineering designs for our community development projects. He uses whatever resources or tools are available to make any needed improvements for anything from community projects to the UMF beneficio to our office. If Martir is presented with a challenge, he immediately takes on the challenge and begins to work on it, often not stopping until he has found a solution. Martir, who was born and grew up in La Unión, cultivates fruit trees and owns a small coffee farm. He and his wife have four children, three of whom attend the bilingual school in town. He hopes that his youngest son, who is now in the public kindergarten, will also be able to learn English at the same school as his siblings.

Your support to Unión MicroFinanza helps support our employees (like Martir!) and their families. With a sustainable income, they are able to invest in their children’s education, their homes and their family farms. A monthly donation helps our organization provide this sustainable income – sign up to become a monthly donor on our website! Thank you!

Growing a community development organization

From daily management of programs in Honduras to general oversight of the organization, Patrick Hughes is involved in each of Unión MicroFinanza’s programs. As president of the organization, Patrick oversees accounting, community partnership projects, microloans and trainings. But he also looks toward the future of the organization through visioning, brainstorming and researching new initiatives, and building partnerships in Honduras and in the U.S.

Patrick, one of the founders of UMF, has been living and working in La Unión for 4 1/2 years. He has seen the organization grow in number of employees, programs, and communities served. Many people in town know Patrick and his love for good coffee (without milk or sugar). And many know about the various ways that UMF has worked alongside farmers in La Unión.

When Patrick isn’t working in the UMF office, he can most likely be found helping out (or having a coffee) at La Unión’s café, CafeZAZZO, or working on the coffee field that he co-owns, called Finca El Gringacho. He also likes reading about the latest developments in the world of specialty coffee, and he’s interested in starting rock climbing.

During Patrick’s first year working with UMF (in 2010) employees of the brand-new non-profit made $100 per month. Their salaries reached Honduran minimum wage during the organization’s second year, where they remain at about $350 per month. As he continues to lead and envision growth for UMF, Patrick in particular wants to see UMF’s employees receive a salary that allows them to stay long-term with the organization and provide a sustainable income for their families.

“Unión MicroFinanza is its employees. Without our amazing staff, none of the work that we envision and do would be possible. Every employee has made great sacrifices because they believe in supporting the people of La Unión, but they should not have to sacrifice a living wage,” Patrick said.

The generous support from partners like you contributes to the well-being of each UMF employee. Visit our website to learn more about becoming a donor. Thank you – you are making a difference in our lives and in the lives of the people of Honduras!

Always learning, sharing knowledge

In Honduras, and especially in rural La Unión, the agriculture industry sustains the population with crops for personal consumption and to sell for income. Nearly everyone in La Unión and the surrounding villages (aldeas) is connected in some way to the main crops here: coffee, corn and beans. Unfortunately, agriculture is not always a sure source of income for a family: crop yields can be hurt by bad weather and disease. While these problems cannot be prevented completely, their effects can be mitigated through agricultural knowledge and training on various methods of field management. This training not only helps prevent diseases, but also helps farmers improve their harvests and better manage the income they receive from their fields.

Gilberto works with farmers to
help them improve their harvests.

This is where Gilberto comes in. Gilberto Barrientos Hernández has been a field manager at Unión MicroFinanza for the past 5 years, guiding farmers in improving their crop quality and harvest, and leading agricultural training programs such as the Coffee Farmer School (read more about Coffee Farmer School in our newsletter). As a La Unión native who has been working in agriculture since early childhood, Gilberto has gained invaluable knowledge and build strong relationships in the communities. He also manages his own farm and home garden in La Unión with the help of his wife and three children. Equipped with his experiences and knowledge, Gilberto travels to individual farms in the region every week to demonstrate techniques for improving the harvest.

Besides working with farmers in official training sessions, Gilberto is continually questioning, learning and sharing his knowledge with others. UMF staff members look to Gilberto as the resident expert on all things plant related. He not only can identify many of the plants he encounters, he can also tell of their properties and uses. If he isn’t familiar with a certain plant, he tucks a sample into his backpack to bring home and inquire about it. Gilberto is an essential part of UMF not only for his knowledge, but also for the relationships and trust he has formed in the communities.

Gilberto’s three children attend the bilingual school in La Unión, and they enjoy translating for visiting groups. They dream about receiving higher education and starting their careers, and Gilberto hopes the same for them as he works to help them fulfill these dreams.

We value Gilberto and his work, and want to support him with a sustainable income so he can provide for his family’s daily necessities, for his children to receive a quality education, for improving his home, and for health care. Your donations to UMF help support farmer training programs, as well as the employees like Gilberto who lead them. Find out more on our website about becoming a donor. Thank you for your partnership with Unión MicroFinanza and the people of Honduras!

Contribute to the well-being of UMF employees

Gilberto Barrientos works with coffee farmer Francis Castillo on a field plan.

Bienestar: the concept in Spanish of generally being in a good state financially, emotionally, and physically. Well-being.

Over the past five years, we have been working in La Unión, Lempira, Honduras, to help farmers, their families, and the communities in which they live, achieve economic stability and well-being (bienestar, in Spanish). At Unión MicroFinanza, we want our employees to achieve the same stability and well-being!

For this reason, we are excited to announce our Bienestar Recurring Donor Drive, which will be running through the month of September!

What does the Bienestar Donor Drive support?

This donor campaign supports our employees through salaries and health insurance, office rent and materials, and motorcycle transportation to community villages. These costs are all fundamental to the functioning of our organization; without this funding, we cannot continue all of our programs, grow the organization, or maintain stability and efficiency. In order to cover these costs, we need to raise a minimum of $4,000 per month.

Including partners like you in our organization ensures the continued growth of our training, microloan and community development programs. Here are our key overall fundraising priorities:

• Current employee salaries -- $3,010 ($430 per employee) per month
• Motorcycle maintenance and transportation -- $170 per month
• Office (rent, Internet, and maintenance) -- $250 per month
• Staff health insurance -- $875 per month

How you can support us:

Become a monthly donation partner! We value all contributions, but it is through monthly donations that we achieve financial stability and are free to focus on the communities of La Unión. Below are some donation suggestions:

• $25 per month – Contribute to our rent for office space in La Unión
• $50 per month – Support one month of motorcycle transport to villages
• $100 per month – Support a week salary for a UMF employee

Visit our website to become a monthly donation partner. To stay updated on news from UMF, find us on Facebook and sign up for our monthly newsletter. Thank you! You make our work in Honduras possible!

Behind the scenes at UMF: numbers and news

At Unión MicroFinanza in La Unión, some of the employees spend much of their time outside of the office, traveling to coffee farms and villages. And others are more often in the office, providing just as necessary support on the administration and communication sides. Two of these employees, for whom access to Internet and a quality office environment are essential, are Charlie Heins and Heather Farrell.

Litos manages accounting and finances for UMF.

Finance Manager Charlie Heins (who in La Unión is simply known as Litos) manages all accounting, including the bank accounts, taxes, and all spending and receipts for the organization's La Unión office. This involves everything from paying employees, to approving supplies for the office (without Litos, the motorcycle would not get filled with gas to go to the villages!) He also manages the receipt of payments made at microloan meetings, and trains the Honduran employees on using the computer to record payments and interest for microloans.

During harvest season, Litos is in charge of the beneficio, on top of his usual daily responsibilities. Here, he makes sure that everything is ready for each day, coordinates employee schedules, and assures that the beneficio is a good working environment.

Litos also helps make it possible for our community partners to visit La Unión and to support development projects in the villages: he receives and manages payments and costs for these trips. Basically, he makes sure that everyone gets paid who needs to be paid! Considering the nearest bank is three hours away, this takes a lot of organization and planning, and it's critical to the continuation of our community partnership projects.

Besides his work with Unión MicroFinanza, Litos is known in La Unión as someone who can provide technical support for computers and cellphones, in a place where there isn’t a “Geek Squad” to call. He also enjoys playing guitar and chess with the bilingual school students.

Heather organizes partnership trips and works with
bilingual school students, who translate for groups.

Heather Farrell is the media director for Unión MicroFinanza, and is in charge of communication for the organization. This involves everything from social media, to newsletters, to Skype calls and emails with community partners. If you receive the monthly newsletter, or see photos on Facebook, chances are Heather was behind it.

Another big part of Heather’s job in La Unión is communication with partners, both in Honduras and in the United States. Heather works with Pedro as a link between communities in La Unión and the U.S. She and Pedro plan and manage group visits to La Unión, as well as make sure that community projects continually move forward. We put great importance on connecting communities, and communication is vital for maintaining and building relationships. Heather works to make sure that our partners receive these updates and news.

In addition to working with U.S. partners, Heather stays busy in the community of La Unión and builds on local partnerships as well. She is involved in the Vida Abundante church in town, and works closely with the Vida Abundante bilingual school. She enjoys giving music and English lessons to members of the community, and hopes that what they learn will provide them with opportunities in the future.

Your generous donations to the organization support community development projects, trainings and microloan programs, and they also support the people who make these happen. Find out more on our website about becoming a donor. Thank you for your partnership with Unión MicroFinanza and the people of Honduras!

Community Partnership Coordinator: Pedro Hernández

Pedro, center, joins members of the village of San Agustín and Life Church
of Colorado at the start of a community partnership project.

We’re wrapping up a meeting in the UMF office; Pedro has just given an update on a development project in one of the villages. He’d met with the community leaders and coordinated with the engineer to begin the next phase of the project. The village’s project committee had a few questions for Pedro as well, which we will discuss with the project partner in the U.S. Through Pedro, and other members of the UMF staff, the communities in La Unión and the U.S. stay connected on community projects and also on a personal level, even though they are not able to be physically in the same place.

Pedro, right, takes notes in
La Cuesta in preparation for
a community project.

Community development is by no means straight forward; promoting sustainability and positive growth requires planning, adaptability, and above all collaboration. As such, Uniόn MicroFinanza intentionally involves community members and community partners in every step of development projects. To coordinate this collaboration and communication is UMF employee José Pedro Hernández Tejada. Because of his rapport within the communities and experience with social promotion, Pedro, a 28-year-old La Uniόn native, has been irreplaceable since he was hired two years ago. The people in the communities know Pedro well, and the respect they hold for each other helps them reach agreements.

Without Pedro, community partnership projects would not run nearly as smooth. Coming from a background of small-business (his family owns a small store in La Unión), Pedro is extremely organized and attentive to detail. He plans and helps direct meetings among community leaders to move forward on community projects. He travels to the communities to see how projects are advancing and take note of any of the community’s concerns or ideas. He is truly the link that connects communities in the U.S. and in La Unión.

Pedro helps coordinate a water access
project in San Agustín.

As much as Uniόn MicroFinanza relies on the work and relationships established by Pedro, he also relies on UMF for his well-being and future plans. Recently engaged to be married, Pedro is looking forward to providing for his new family through his work with UMF. Your generous donations to the organization support important community development projects, and they also support the people who make these projects happen. Find out more on our website about becoming a donor. Thank you for your partnership with Unión MicroFinanza and the people of Honduras!

Summer in La Unión, sharing knowledge and experiences

If La Unión had a tourism industry, its high season would be June. Many visitors, new and returning, come to town as their school year ends, but they aren’t coming as tourists. Sure, the tropical green mountains and open views of the valleys are impossible to miss on the drive into town. But most of these visitors are coming to meet new friends (and possibly visit old ones), and continue building partnerships between their respective communities. And for three interns, these relationships will be formed over their 10 weeks in Honduras.

As with previous summers, Unión MicroFinanza hosts interns for the summer months to assist with and learn about community partnership projects (watch the blog to read about new projects!) and the microloan, training and coffee programs. These interns also provide the organization with valuable research on topics varying from coffee leaf rust to markets and savings.

Besides this, summer interns live in the town and spend time with the people who live here. They will take these experiences and new perspectives with them as they return to their universities and friends in the States. This year, four interns are joining UMF, with one arriving later in the summer. Aidan Baldwin, Andreas Vailakis, and Marcus Warner have different areas of study and interests, which allows them to work on a variety of projects with the organization.

Aidan comes from the University of Notre Dame, where he is studying finance and entrepreneurship. Along with the other interns, he is helping organize and carry out distribution of June microloans. Aidan has already noted that some of the needs and resources in these communities differ from those he has visited in other developing countries. He’ll be hearing more about market access for small farmers in La Unión, and more about Aldea Coffee, which sells La Unión coffee in the U.S. Besides this, Aidan hopes to improve his Spanish, aided by the Honduran UMF staff.

Andreas is studying for his master’s degree in social enterprise from American University, concentrating on international development in Latin America and monitoring and evaluation. In addition to working on a monitoring and evaluation plan for UMF programs, Andreas is interested in learning more about the savings strategies of households in La Unión, including investing in and selling non-perishable goods. During his internship, Andreas is staying with a farmer in UMF’s coffee training program. In living with them, he has noticed that women in La Unión have just as much work to do as the men: “Although Martha, the mother, is nearly the same age as me, she feels like my Honduran mom. I’m impressed by how hard she works and how much she does in the day. She is typically the first one to wake up in the family and the last one to bed, and I almost never see her taking a break.”

Marcus Warner studies civil and environmental engineering at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign, focusing on hydrology and energy-water-environment sustainability. His knowledge will be valuable for the two water-focused community partnership projects that UMF is currently involved with. Marcus is excited to learn from UMF employees Gilberto, Martir, and Pedro, who creatively approach engineering challenges based on experience rather than formal training. “Perhaps the most valuable thing that this internship will leave me with is motivation. In all of my classes before this summer, the problems that needed solving seemed abstract, even if they were based on a real-world engineering project. However, working with villages through similar problems this summer has given me a powerful frame of reference for future schoolwork.”

Relationships renewed and begun

Written by Sally Wevers, who led a team from Calvary Church in Holland, Michigan, on a visit to La Unión from Feb. 11 to 18. 

An eight person team recently returned from La Unión, Honduras. Despite different ages, backgrounds, experiences, and viewpoints, the group bonded extremely well. The Unión MicroFinanza staff did an amazing job setting up the schedule, as we were able to spend time with farmers, families, students at Abundant Life school, and individuals in La Unión.

The trip was unique in that it took place during coffee harvest, and we were able to receive and process Marlon Carcamo's (Calvary's coffee provider) coffee cherries. We picked coffee, unloaded 150-pound bags of fresh coffee cherries, processed them through the beneficio, hand sorted, stirred beans in the solar dryer, smelled, tested and tasted coffee.

We had times of reflection, devotions, and debriefing, sharing, and challenge. In order to share so many thoughts from the team, we are listing some observations, impacts, and responses. We hope you enjoy reading about what we have learned.

Observations:
- There is extreme poverty next to spectacular beauty, and the two extremes painfully clash.
- Calvary's coffee farmer, Marlon Carcamo, was thrilled and honored to have North Americans pick in his field and have lunch in his home with his family. But, the honor was ours.
- Our hearts hurt for the difficult physical labor and efforts placed on our farmer friends, so painfully affected by a leaf rust fungus that was no fault of their own. The fungus destroyed major portions of the coffee fields for many farmers. Knowing the families, having faces with names, brings authentic sadness and concern to the team. Our prayers will now be more intentional for them.
-"It is unfair that they work so hard and their provision for food is wiped out. The unfairness makes me mad!  I don't think I will complain when I get my Saturday chore list anymore," shared by the youngest member of our team.
- Physical provisions for families have been negatively affected, but there is more. Education for many has been taken away. We spent limited time in Nueva Paz -- this is where a team helped to build water collection systems called pilas two years ago. Eight children could be named from this one small community who had to quit their local school for lack of $15 per student for the semester!

Impacts:
- We are committed to purchasing the Aldea Coffee at church, and sharing our experience with others. The choices we make at home do dramatically impact others.
- We are partnering with an amazing organization in La Unión. The Unión Microfinanza (UMF) staff is committed to change. One of the staff members shared this with us, "Coffee is the thing we do to partner with and provide change. It could have been tea, or something else. The driving passion we have is the people, not the product."
- The UMF staff has the wisdom and the education to teach and replicate supplies needed to create smaller scale beneficios for area farmers. This training continues to have ripple affects in the community. We are grateful for Calvary's partnership with this organization.
- The team was challenged to attain more responsible personal stewardship, to consider what "living with less" might look like, to realize a growing appreciation for UMF's tremendous commitment to La Unión, and we experienced a greater appreciation for the education offered at Abundant Life school. The spiritual maturity of high school students was a powerful witness to us.

Most, if not all of us, have been asked,"Why go on a mission trip?" This is a summary of our answers. It is not about how much work that could be accomplished, but rather it is about relationships renewed, and others begun. It is not about what we could teach them, but what they had to teach us. When we now know names with faces, people matter. What they do and need matters, and responding to needs brings Christ-centered joy. Mission trips motivate personally and communally. Step out of your comfort zone. Mission trips are addictive!

Photos: What’s new at the UMF beneficio

The first coffees of the 2014 harvest are in at the beneficio! As we discussed in a previous post, we made some changes to how we are running things at the beneficio this year. But we couldn’t do this without making some changes to the beneficio itself.

First, and most importantly, we turned our four large fermentation tanks into eight smaller tanks. This is important because it allows each farmer to have two small tanks, meaning they can bring coffee more continually:

Second, we are building another two solar dryers. One will be a large solar dryer, totaling four, so that each farmer has access to their own dryer. The other will be a smaller dryer that we designed in the off-season. This dryer will be used mainly for experimentation, and will also serve as a model to farmers who produce small amounts of coffee and cannot afford to build a larger solar dryer:

Third, we have our custom-built coffee cherry size sorting machine up and running. This machine will sort out under-ripe and over-ripe cherries that would otherwise lower the quality of the coffee:

Fourth, we have installed a biodigester. This biodigester will use anaerobic fermentation to treat coffee wastewater and coffee pulp, ensuring that we are not contaminating the environment around us. Additionally, it will produce methane gas that can be used to run our processing equipment. More on this in another post.

We have also made several smaller changes including a newly designed valve in our upper tanks that will facilitate coffee flow, lowering our processing water usage, and check boxes in our wastewater tubing to prevent blockages:

All of these changes will help UMF to better achieve our goals of quality, training, and sustainability at the beneficio.

A new approach at the UMF beneficio

We’re firing up the depulping machine at the UMF beneficio in La Unión, ready for the 2014 coffee harvest! This year will look a little different at the beneficio – let us tell you what’s new and what we hope to accomplish through the changes we’ve made.

Each year, we learn more about coffee processing and how to better achieve our goals of quality, training, and environmental sustainability. The 2013 harvest season saw successes in all three of these areas, but we want to improve on it by making changes for the 2014 harvest.

The biggest change we’ve made is that only four different farmers will process their coffee at the UMF beneficio this year. These farmers were pre-selected based on their participation in previous years at the beneficio and in our microloan program. The main idea for having only four farmers each year is to ensure that we are able to provide the best training experience possible, so that they will be able to replicate and continue processing high quality coffee on their own in future years.

The fermentation tanks get tiling after being split in half.

In addition, we (UMF) and the farmers will be better able to manage how much coffee is coming to the beneficio for processing, and when. Each of the four farmers will be assigned an entire solar dryer and two fermentation tanks (we modified our previous tanks to divide them in half and create eight tanks in total). Farmers will be in charge of managing this equipment, so they will know before they pick coffee if they have room at the UMF beneficio to process, ferment, and dry it. Through this experience, farmers will learn about managing the coffee processing at their own beneficios in the future.

By working in-depth with four farmers during this harvest, we will also be able to visit coffee farms on the day of picking and offer on-site advice on picking quality coffee. High quality picking is one of the areas that we have identified as having the greatest impact on final quality, so this will benefit the farmers (who will get a higher price for better quality) as well as consumers, who will get even better coffee at the end of the day.

Also, we’ll require farmers to spend at least 20 hours at the UMF beneficio to learn about the different processing stages that their coffee is going through, including receiving, fermentation and drying. This in-depth training is important to enable farmers to process their own coffee in the future. Since we also want to make sure that other farmers have the opportunity to receive this training in the future, we’re limiting the number of years that a farmer can process at the UMF beneficio.

All of these changes will continue to transform the beneficio into a stepping stone to farmers achieving their own coffee processing capabilities. Within the next few years, we are excited to see farmers graduate from the UMF beneficio and implement high quality, environmentally sustainable beneficios of their own. We will be posting updates throughout the harvest!