Trickle Up's Microenterprise Opportunities for People with Disabilities

In October 2010, USAID awarded Trickle Up a grant for a two-year program to promote “inclusive development” in Guatemala – that is, development projects that include people with disabilities – and the “Microenterprise Opportunities for People with Disabilities” program began.

Trickle Up values the capacity of the extreme poor to lift themselves out of poverty; their program provides an injection of capital, training and savings support to start or expand livelihood activities. Experience has shown that people with disabilities (PWDs) bear a similar stigma of marginalization to the extreme poor, and are similarly able to benefit from the Trickle Up program.

Meet two of the program’s participants

Astrid Yesenia Ben Ramirez is from the community of Cerro de Oro in the municipality of Santiago Atitlán, Guatemala. She is 18 years old, the eldest of four daughters, and has a moderate intellectual disability. Astrid’s family members work as day laborers and textile-makers, and sometimes temporarily migrate to find work. Their struggle to make ends meet has translated into indebtedness and the inability to know where their next meal would come from.

In July 2011, Trickle Up and its partner organization, ADISA, visited Astrid and her mother. They had come to tell them about the Microenterprise Program for People with Disabilities they were implementing in the region with support from USAID. They asked Astrid to join. At first, the family was skeptical about the proposition, as they had previously been offered assistance from other organizations that never followed through on their promises. It was only after listening to the how Trickle Up could help her start a business and how we would offer mentorship along the way, that Astrid agreed to participate.

Diego Ramírez Xicay is 39 years old and lives in Cerro de Oro, located twenty minutes outside the city of Santiago Atitlan in Guatemala.

Diego used to make embroidered goods, which proved extremely difficult because of his pronounced rheumatoid arthritis. This disability quickly fatigued his hands and he often had to re-sew sections because his arthritis made it difficult to consistently produce quality work. It would take him almost 45 days to complete an embroidered or woven piece. As a result of the slow work, he only earned 240 quetzales (US $40) every 45 days.

When Diego joined Trickle Up’s Microenterprise Program for People with Disabilities, funded by USAID, he started a local fruit stand. “I sell oranges, mangos, watermelon, papaya, and mandarins. At the beginning I was afraid because people passed by and they didn’t buy anything. But, little by little, some of the village children began to come and actually buy my goods.”