Description and Impact

Being the second poorest state in Mexico, more than 75% of its population lives in poverty. For women in Oaxaca, life is especially hard because having children to care for makes it incredibly difficult to find work—the system in Oaxaca sees these poor women with children as unemployable. Furthermore, many of these women have husbands who travel far away to look for work and are gone for long periods of time. Without a husband to support them, poor Oaxacan women often resort to begging.  With no other way to make a living, these women are stuck in the cycle of poverty, disease and death, with little hope for escape. 

What is the overall goal of the project? The overall goal of this project is to help poor Oaxacan women generate income so that they are able to escape the cycle of poverty, through the use of microfinance loans. The organization aims to train women on the benefits of savings and credit so as to improve the lives of the women and the communities that they live in.  It is the goal of the organization to find a group of women in rural towns in Oaxaca who are motivated and have ideas about how to use their loans to make a living. By providing a group of women with loans, the organization is essentially setting up a grassroots bank for these women, which not only provides them with the loan but also a place to save their money, which many have never been able to do in the past.    Additionally, this organization provides some educational workshops for the children of these women, so that they may be instilled with the tools necessary to grow into positive contributors to their community. 

What's Included

• Homestay with a carefully-screened Mexican family
• Daily meals (you will receive three meals a day)
• Project funding and support 
• Spanish language classes
• Onsite transportation, airport pickup and drop off Health and travel insurance
• Cultural and adventure excursions
• 24-hour support from ProWorld Mexcio staff 
• Access to Casa ProWorld Mexico – unlimited bottled water, wireless internet

What's Not Included

• Airfare, Visa and Airport Tax (if applicable)