The Lapacho Civil Association came into legal existence in 2001 in Resistencia, (Chaco Province, Argentina), as a nonprofit organization without political or religious affiliations designed to bring financial opportunity to some of Argentina's poorest communities through access to microcredit for their enterpreneurial projects. Credit is disbursed and repaid through the application of the Grameen system, the creation of Nobel Peace Prize-winning Bangladeshi professor Muhammad Yunus of Bangladesh. To better achieve this mission, the Lapacho Civil Association also provides non-financial services like workshops and seminars to improve the borrower’s knowledge and capacity to operate small businesses. The organization's legal registry number is 2057. The name "Lapacho" comes from a tree indigenous to the region with the same name, a symbol of hope and prosperity.

 

 

 

"Credit serves not just as a tool for generating income, but also as a powerful weapon for social change, and a way for people to find new meaning in their lives. Credit is a human right.”

Muhammad Yunus, Towards a World Without Poverty 

 The Grameen Model is a microcredit system predicated on giving loans to society’s poorest classes without material collateral. The loans are then used in productive enterprises to generate income and improve quality of life through the borrower’s efforts. Providing such financial services to the poor has proven to be one of the most efficacious methods of aliviating poverty worldwide. Economist Muhammad Yunus, inventor and implementor of the Grameen Model, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for the system’s wild success and practical vision of how to achieve a world without poverty

Grameen relies upon mutual cooperation and trust, responsibility, creativity and, fundamentally, solidarity of the borrowers.

In general, the loans are aound US$ 150.

Because the microloans given by a Grameen bank can only be used to provide support and aid in the expansion of microinterprises, they are not handouts or charity, but rather investments in a small business and in the life of a woman and her family.

The word “Grameen” comes from Bangla and means “villiage“ of the villiage.”