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Grameen Foundation : Get involved : Our Allies : Chiapas Project

The Chiapas Project

Defeating Poverty Through Business Solutions


The Chiapas Project benefits thousands of Mexican women and their children, like this boy in his mother's store.

The Chiapas Project is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization led by prominent business and civic leaders in Dallas, Texas, who are passionate about using the power of microfinance to fight global poverty. Spearheaded by Dallas real estate developer and Grameen Foundation Board Member Lucy Billingsley, The Chiapas Project began as a charitable enterprise to provide microfinance to impoverished women living in Mexico’s poorest state. The Chiapas Project was catalyzed after Billingsley led a group of enterprising business and civic leaders to Mexico. The group came face-to-face with the Mexican women’s grinding poverty but also experienced their energy and enthusiasm. The local women had achieved dramatic changes in their lives with their talent and extremely little capital. Since that tour, The Chiapas Project has successfully raised more than $790,000 to expand the opportunity of microfinance through Grameen Foundation. As a result of this and other support, more than 5,000 Chiapas women are on their way to leaving poverty.

The Chiapas Project recently launched a $3.5 million fundraising campaign in support of Grameen Foundation’s Latin America Initiative. The campaign is among the most significant effort ever launched by Dallas citizens to defeat poverty in the region. The Chiapas Project's work will support a larger $9.9 million goal led by Grameen Foundation to scale-up the work of Grameen Foundation’s ten microfinance partners in Latin America and the Caribbean. Grameen Foundation's regional partners are located in Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador (two programs), Mexico (three programs), Bolivia and the Dominican Republic. The Latin America Initiative is expected to add 186,000 borrowers and move 93,000 families out of poverty by 2008.

The Chiapas Project has been featured in both national and local and media such as The Dallas Morning News, The Wall Street Journal, and Barron’s.

For further information, please contact Tricia Bridges, Executive Director of The Chiapas Project at: tbridges@billingsleyco.com

Grameen Foundation : Get involved : Our Allies : Chiapas Project