Dear Friends,

As key stakeholders who have made a considerable impact on our organization, I want to ensure you are well-informed of our activities and progress.   Friendship Bridge has hit an important milestone this month and I am excited to share the details with you, along with other important initiatives. If you are looking for more in-depth information on any of these highlights, please contact the Friendship Bridge office via e-mail or 303.674.0717.

Highlights:

• Portfolio reaches historic high while maintaining excellent quality
  Friendship Bridge grew our portfolio to 30 million quetzales ($3.85 million)!  This is an exciting milestone for Friendship Bridge and I am happy to report that this accomplishment was met while continuing to maintain our excellent portfolio quality and serving nearly 18,000 clients.

• Reducing the burden of poverty
  Our impact and evaluation work shows a clear, positive association between the length of time a client is with Friendship Bridge and their level of poverty.  Our work in reducing the burden of poverty is two-fold: (1) Clients create a more consistent cash flow and protection against shocks such as unexpected illnesses or natural disasters; and, (2) clients are using valuable information they learn during our health education programs in their daily lives.

• Social Performance Management principles garner industry attention
  Shon Morris, Friendship Bridge staff member, was invited to present at the Latin American Conference on Village Banking for our exemplarily work with Social Performance Management, affirming our position as a leader in the field.

• Health initiatives
  Data shows that clients appreciate our health programs and are using what they learn.  In an effort to enhance our social impact commitment to our clients, we have partnered with HELPS International, the manufacturer of ONIL Stoves, to facilitate our clients’ transition to safer and healthier stoves that minimize smoke inhalation and burns.  In addition, these stoves reduce wood use by 70%, saving valuable time, money and natural resources.

Lastly, if anyone is interested in traveling to Guatemala to see first-hand the impact these programs have on our clients, consider our next Insight Trip scheduled for November 10-16, 2013.  If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us at 303.674.0717.

All the best,

Karen Larson
Executive Director