Mission

Pro Mujer targets women aged 18-67 and provides them with credit training and small loans to start or improve businesses. Pro Mujer also integrates training in health, family planning, child development, and links to other important services into their program.

Vision

Pro Mujer aims to empower women and develop their confidence and skill in business. The organization helps to provide women with access to the educational opportunities men traditionally have enjoyed.

Programs

• Loans Voluntary Savings Training and Consulting Business Development Services Health Education

Campaigns

Promujer serves women in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Mexico, and Peru. The number beside each country indicates its gross loan portfolio:

• Bolivia $5,292,000 Mexico $1,249,000 Nicaragua $1,921,000 Peru $2,709,000

Events

• Pro Mujer Benefit Celebration – Nov 06

News

• * Millions for Millions From The New Yorker. October 2006 * Checkups and Chances From the Pink Magazine. August/September, 2006 * Counting Chickens From the Latin Finance. July, 2006 * Building Self-Sufficiency, by Lynne Patterson. From the journal for the National Council of Jewish Women. Summer 2003 * MicroRate Pro Mujer Peru receives A- Rating from MicroRate * Micro Loans, Solid Returns Microfinance funds lift poor entrepreneurs -- and benefit investors From Business Week. May 9, 2005 * No-Frills Trip Is a Shared Experience for Charity Executives and Donors From Chronicle of Philanthropy. March 31, 2005 * Championship League MicroEnterprise Americas. 2004 * Plenary Session: Building Better Lives - Sustainable Integration of Microfinance with Education in Child Survival, Reproductive Health, and HIV/AIDS Prevention for the Poorest Entrepreneurs Microcredit Summit E-News. January 2004 * Mini loans, maxi help By Alejando Landes, Miami Herald, Nov. 5, 2003 ”Microlending agencies worldwide may lend as little as $20 to enable poor families that can't get bank loans to start their own businesses”. * Unitus Partner Expeditions led a trip to visit Pro Mujer Mexico. Participants visited loan centers where they saw borrowers attending weekly meetings, repaying their loans and receiving health and education training. For more information about this expedition visit the Unitus Newsletter. * The Unitus November 2003 Newsletter features several Pro Mujer clients. To read their stories, visit: November, 2003 Newsletter

Publications/Resources

• Spring 2007 Newsletter Summer 2006 Newsletter Spring - Summer 2005 Newsletter Fall 2003 Newsletter

Staff

Ben Moyer, CEO

Advisors to the Board of Directors

• Thomas W. Studwell Jonathan Morduch Chuck Waterfield Elaine L. Edgcomb

Promujer Advisory Council

• Arminda Figueroa Bonnie Lunt Carla Skodinski Carmen Baez Carmen M. Segarra, Esq. Clara Lipson Jose Cancela Karen Lithgow Leslie Benning Linda De Jesús-Cutler Mary Jane O’Neill Silvia Suarez Teresa Segarra

Board of Directors

• Rita Foley, Chairman Gail Landis, Vice Chair Lynne Patterson Carmen Velasco Ruth B. Cowan Helen Clement Peter W. Greenough Peter Johnson William K. Kirst Rebecca Mendoza Mauricio Pages Rosario Perez Maria C. Richter Monique Skruzny Maryann B. Sudo Luis A. Viada Rosemary Werrett Linda Watt Jonathan G. Weiss

History

Pro Mujer was founded in 1990 by Lynne Patterson, a North American, and Carmen Velasco, a Bolivian. Lynne and Carmen were passionate about the welfare of families and struggled with the fact that 34% of the Bolivian population lived below the national poverty line of whom most were women. Their first step was to offer a group of poor Bolivian women programs in empowerment, health, family planning and child development.Their second step was to create a business development program that offered training in business skills and access to credit.Through partnership with the Grameen Bank in Bangledesh. Lastly, because of their growing awareness of the impact health has on the ability to start and run a successful business health education classes and access to affordable healthcare services became an integral part of the Pro Mujer model.

Awards/Recognition

• Pro Mujer receives award from the World Bank-based CGAP Pro Mujer receives award from Grameen Foundation Gates Foundation awards Pro Mujer US$3.1 million

Links

• Robert Duvall selected Pro Mujer as his preferred charity on Kevin Bacon’s new website, Six Degrees. Learn more at http://www.sixdegrees.org Microcredit Summit http://www.microcreditsummit.org Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP) http://www.cgap.org Unitus, Global Microfinance Accelerator http://www.unitus.com/ Impact: improving the impact of microfinance on poverty http://www.imp-act.org/