Letter from our Founder

Another year has past. Our second Newsletter is on your screen. Thanks for taking the time to read it.

Three years ago we partnered with US charity NamasteDirect to jointly deliver a unique business development program to help poor women in Guatemala increase their business profits. The program is comprised of small loans, from Open to Grow; group training and one-on-one business mentoring, from Namaste; and a lot of hard work from our clients.

We focus on helping clients increase their business profits. With increased profits, they can through their own efforts improve the quality of their lives (and the lives of family members), and move from poverty towards self-sufficiency.

We operate in Guatemala, one of the poorest countries in Latin America. 75% of the population lives below the poverty line. 58% of the population cannot purchase a basic basket of food.

Why support Open to Grow? Take a look below at our achievements over the past three years. We do not do this alone. People are generous to a fault in giving of their time, talent and treasure to our cause. We are grateful to all of our donors, grantors, event supporters, auction item donors, and volunteers.

Thank you for your support. Help us continue this work by making a donation now.

Sincerely,
Bob Brown, Founder

Recent Events

In April, we visited our local partner Fundacion Nacional Guatemaya, in Antigua, Guatemala to work on accounting, reporting and future joint initiatives. We spent a full day in the field visiting clients, seeing their progress and hearing their wonderful stories. This was definitely the highlight of the trip.

In September, we completed our first two grants: an Alberta Communities Initiatives Program Grant, and a grant from the Fig Tree Foundation. We are very grateful for this support and will re-apply for further funding in the new year.

In October, we held our third major fund-raiser, the Studio 54 Gala & Disco Party, at Hotel Arts. The event was chaired by Board Member Carrie Lonardelli, who did an amazing job! Most attendees dressed up in disco garb and all had a wonderful time. The event had many moving parts, including Board Member Patrick McNaught biking all night long (100 miles) to raise funds for our Miles for Microcredit initiative. The event raised $58,000 and we are extremely grateful for the generosity of the attendees, and auction item donors.

Your donation will help many hundreds of poor Guatemalan businesswomen along the road from poverty to self-sufficiency.

Urda – One Woman’s Story

This video was produced in Guatemala by Diego Columbi. It tells one story of many – the story of Urda, a 39-year old single mother who joined the program a year ago. Like many of our clients, Urda has had a rough life, but has worked hard to support her children and to move forward in her life.

She is now in her second loan cycle (of three) and is doing very well. She has big plans for her future and so do we. All it has taken is donations from you; microloans, training and mentoring from Open to Grow and its partner; and hard work from Urda. We are very proud of her accomplishments.

I am sometimes asked why we work so hard at Open to Grow. We are all volunteers so it isn’t about making money. We now have over 2,000 reasons why we do what we do. This is one of them. Her name is Urda.