Yes! I want to support microfinance and empower people to work their way out of poverty.

Rosa Lidia Bustillo

Comayagua, Honduras
Client of ACCION partner Bancovelo

It’s a sizzling afternoon in Comayagua, Honduras, a small city about 40 miles from the country’s capital, Tegucigalpa. Dust from the winding dirt road kicks up then settles again with every footstep.

Nestled into the side of a hill alongside a dirt road is a simple building whose unmarked exterior belies the bustling bakery inside, famed for having the best bread in town. The proud owner of the business, “Panadería Cesia,” is Rosa Lidia Bustillo, a 45-year-old, hardworking mother of three who greets visitors and customers with a warm smile and trays piled high with warm bread.

Rosa Lidia started the bakery five years ago with a microloan of 20,000 lempiras, or roughly US$1,300 from long-time ACCION partner microfinance institution Bancovelo. With just a little over a thousand dollars, the family was able to launch this enterprise of their own making. Rosa Lidia’s husband, Marco Antonio, had learned the business of baking as a boy. However, he was toiling as a day laborer for meager wages prior to “Panadería Cesia” and unable to get his family ahead.

Without the hand-up of a microloan from Bancovelo, Rosa Lidia and Marco Antonio would never have had the resources to turn this dream into a reality. “We started it all with Orlando,” says Rosa motioning to her Bancovelo loan officer.

A second important step in building the business came when Rosa Lidia secured a second loan ­ this time a housing loan of 25,000 lempiras (roughly US$1,500) ­ from Bancovelo to construct a full kitchen capable of handling a higher volume of baking.

A few years later, “Panadería Cesia” is a lively place, with six employees and the constant hum and glow of a fire. The bakery’s namesake, Cesia, Rosa Lidia and Marco Antonio’s six-year-old daughter, darts in and out of the bustling, sweet-smelling kitchen. Rosa Lidia and Marco Antonio are themselves glowing, and not from the heat of the ovens. They are proud of what they’ve accomplished in five, short years: They own their own enterprise, their bread is known as the best around and, most importantly, they have steadily increased their modest income.