Empowering Individuals in the Global Community Through Entrepreneurship
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The Limon Province of Costa Rica, home to EARTH University, was the site of the Foundation's first initiative partnering with Grameen Trust, and in less than a year has yielded noteworthy success.
The accomplishments of a program providing credit opportunities to the poorest women with no collateral have brought attention to the Foundation, Grameen Trust, and the women entrepreneurs. In February 2007, the U.S. Ambassador to Costa Rica, Mark Langdale, his wife Patty Langdale and EARTH's President, José Saglul, together with local media representatives participated in a tour of the Limon micro-credit project to witness first-hand the impact on the local community.
Included in the visit was a demonstration of the micro-loan collection process, words of encouragement from the guests of honor, and appreciations from the borrowers. Afterwards, women's businesses were on display in an expo that included tamales, hand-made clothes, ice cream, books, and many more micro-enterprises. Following the meeting a more personalized tour was organized to visit borrowers' home-based businesses. This gave the guests an opportunity to experience the reality of the borrowers' situations.
Following the visit, several articles were published in local media, including features stories in Tico Times, La Prensa Libre, Diario Extra and La Nacion, among others.
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