Create Enterprice

We Create Enterprise Credit helps people afford to progress beyond bare subsistence, as well as to diversify village economies. Micro-enterprise credit is the world’s most effective poverty fighter.
Floresta has been involved in credit systems and business creation since its founding in 1984. Floresta’s initial vision was very entrepreneurial and Floresta’s founders sought to use business principles in their approach to environmental problems.
Floresta’s first big project was starting Los Arbolitos, a large-scale for-profit nursery business which has employed as many as 250 people and has had up to $800,000 in annual sales. Seventeen years later Los Arbolitos is still going strong. It has in many ways revolutionized the Dominican nursery business and has been instrumental in the development of its forestry laws.
In 1987 Floresta began making medium-scale loans ($3000-5000) to poor farmers in the Dominican Republic for agroforestry farms. After making about 300 of these loans, we branched out to offer a wider variety of loans to small rural entrepreneurs. We have financed almost dozens of different businesses including mechanic shops, bakeries, beauty salons and tailors, with amounts ranging from $500 to $2000. Recently we started a sawmill business with three sawmills.
When we started our program in Haiti in 1998 years ago we learned that Haiti had a bad track record with credit. For this reason we started small. We also found that people needed an incentive to try new farming techniques, so we made that a prerequisite for receiving credit. Over 20 credit co-ops act as peer accountability groups. Thus far we have made about 2000 small loans ranging from $50-$125. They have been used for land, seed, livestock, retail and some resale. Many farmers who were formerly sharecroppers can now point proudly to the land they own, thanks to the Floresta program.
In Mexico , much of the local economy is based on illegal charcoal production. Charcoal is sold for use in nearby Oaxaca City and other than money sent from migrant workers in the United States , it is the main source of income to the region. Thus, almost any business that diversifies the economy combats deforestation. For this reason, we gave borrowers freedom to try their own ideas. Suddenly we unleashed their creativity and I was amazed at the entrepreneurial spirit of the people. We have made dozens of loans, ranging from $50 to $2000. Businesses include three carpentry shops (two produce high quality furniture and one specializes in wooden rocking horses), a welding shop, a public phone (the only one in town), several restaurants, craft manufacturing, various resale activities and a pharmacy.
We have seen tremendous changes in the villages where we are working, but it is our hope to revitalize the rural economy from the ground up, healing the land and its people, and sharing the love of Christ with those we serve.