Melvis Guerrero (above in the middle) is a 49 year old women with two children, Shirley and Sergioa living in Cartagena, Colombia. And she has a wonderful talent. Melvis makes some of the best pastries and cakes in all of Cartagena but due to a lack of finances, Melvis was limited in the number of people she could share her talents with. Melvis would make 8 cakes a day and sell them in her neighbourhood with weekly sales of around $150,000 pesos or $80 CDN. But then she was introduced to Opportunity International by her niece who was a member of a local Trust Group. Melvis attended aninformational talk, liked the methodology and thought her business could benefit from the small business loan and training services offered. And she was right.

Melvis entered into a Trust Group with an initial loan of $320,000 pesos ($175 CDN) which she invested in raw material for increasing her production. After successfully repaying the initial loan she has gone on to take out two more successive loans to invest in raw materials purchased in larger quantities and lower prices. Using the new captial her business has now grown considerably and she states that her life has changed because of it. She now sells 30 cakes a day! She has been investing her profits from the increased sales in machinery for making her cakes, and with her savings she been able to help her children with their schooling. Melvis also benefits from having a life insurance policy she obtained when she entered the Trust Group Program as is it will provide a safety net for her children if something happens to her.

Melvis says she has benefitted greatly from the training she received. She has learned to live side by side and share with the people in her neighbourhood, when before she didn’t know them. She also says the training sessions have helped her to think and make better decisions about her business and noted that the attention provided by her Loan Officer has been especially excellent. Her dream for the future is to see her business become a company and thus improve the quality of her life, together with that of her family.

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Watch "9 Minutes with Melvis Guerrero" Filmed on a recent Insight Trip to Colombia