Danli, Honduras

Danli is a beautiful little city close to the Nicaraguan border, about one hour by car to the South-east of Tegucigalpa.

We have a new office a half block off the central plaza.  It's a recently restored 2 story townhouse.

These are three pictures of the main square with the central cathedral.

Danli and another small city nearby, Paraiso, are known for Cuban-type cigars.  Quite a few Cuban tobacco farmers settled here after Castro came to power.  I don't smoke, but some of my US friends who have received gift boxes of cigars from me say they are fabulous.

There is also coffee production.  One of the biggest coffee processors, Cafe Rey, has major operations between Danli and Paraiso.  The same extended family which owns Cafe Rey is famous for its string of Starbuck-like coffee houses throughout Honduas called Cafe Americano.  Also, there are quite a few Nicaraguans who settled here after the Sandinistas took over Nicaragua in the 80's.

On the way to Danli is the famous agriculture university called Zamorano.  It's well known throughout Central and South Americas, and affiliated with the University of Florida and I think, the University of Alabama or Arkansas.  Students can transfer most of their units to UF and graduate with a BS in Agriculture with a one year residency.  It has a farm store where you can buy all types of beef, poultry, pork, sausages, coffee, spices, orange juice, fruits, and vegetables - all fresh and raised on the farm by students.  When I worked for the Dole Fresh Fruit Company in Latin America in 1980's, most of our technical agriculture staff had graduated from Zamorano.

The first picture on the far left shows our former Operations Manager, Rene Gamero, a Zamorano graduate.  He's speaking with Manuel Sorto, our Senior Loan Officer.

In the second picture is Olga Barahona, Supervisor of the Danli Branch.  She started with us 4.5 years ago as an administrative clerk while finishing her BA degree.  When she graduated, we promoted her to Supervisor.  Her branch is steadily growing and has the lowest delinquency level of all our branches - 0.07%.  Since Danli has an overabundance of banks and other micro-finance institutions, Olga's strategy has been to market Prisma's services to the under-served population in the peripheral sections of Danli.  The strategy has worked big time and that's why you see so many loans from Danli being posted on Kiva.

This last picture shows Itza Paz, one of our Loan Officers, speaking with Manuel Sorto.  Itza came to us from a major MFI competitor.  She works the streets, especially the peripheral areas around Danli where credit availability was scarce before Prisma started offerings its products and services.

Comments

[Ramon]

Kendall, thanks for the description of the Danli office. I have loans in most of the cities that Prisma covers in Honduras, and it is great to get a more personal picture of what is going on there.

[Kendall Mau]

Thanks Ramon. Danli is probably my favorite office in our network. Very Spanish colonial, clean, and lots of activity in the central market and downtown areas. Kendall