Berkley Center

Background: As part of the Education and Social Justice Project, in June 2013 undergraduate Sarah Baran interviewed Noella Soledad Lugoneas, a credit assessor at the Teresa Brogan agency of Protagonizar, a microfinance lender in the lower class community of San Miguel, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Leugoneas, whose work involves searching for potential clients and evaluating entrepreneurs before they acquire credit from the organization, discussed Protagonizar's impact on the community, obstacles the agency faces, and the aspects of Protagonizar that make it unique.

Can you please share with me a little bit more about your background, your family, your past work experience, and what lead you to Protagonizar?

I have lived in los Polvorines my entire life. I have a son, Thomas, who is 9, and I live alone with him. This year I will receive my degree in Public Administration from the public university, Universidad de General de Sarimiento. When I was growing up, my father worked in the municipal for the government. My mother and my older brother also worked there.

I worked for two years in the municipal [government] before Protagonizar, and this October I will complete four years with Protagonizar. I began in Mitre for training and, as soon as I finished my training, started at Teresa Brogan. I have been working alone in Brogan every day of the week, except once a week Cintia comes and helps along with Damian. Brogan also started in a church, one different from Mitre that was called San Gorge, in 2008. We moved to Brogan, which is located here in the Polvorines, in 2010.

What originally brought you to Protagonizar?

Honestly, it was an economic question. I needed work, and there was a job position open. However, after working here for some time, I have realized that this work is unique and not very common. I have a great interest in working with the people. I did before as well in my previous job with the municipal [government], and I hope to work with them again with some position in the government in the future. Here, too, I work with the people. I do not like to be in an office the entire time, so I enjoy the visits to the houses. When I first began, I did not know anyone or this neighborhood well. Yet now I do, and this is very important not only for me, that I am with the people in a place where I am familiar, but also for the organization.

What is your position now and what are your responsibilities?

I am a credit assessor, thus my principle responsibility is to look for clients. Now, people come here more often to look for the credits because others give them recommendations. They visit, and we gather information to evaluate if they are able to take the credit and if they have the capacity to return the credit. In this stage, the responsibility of the credit assessor is to figure out who each person is. I spend time investigating whether potential clients have various problems now or have had some in the past. For example, one of the most serious problems we are always looking out for is if they have a lot of debts with private banks or the central bank in the town. Another one we look for is if there are legal problems. The majority of those who come here do not have debts because there is little access to the formal banking system, so what is more frequent is that our entrepreneurs have never had a credit before in their lives.

Can you describe the characteristics of your community to me?

Teresa Brogan is close to the station. It’s ten minutes from the train, thus the community is not as poor here compared with those of some of the other agencies. Economically, It is a little bit higher. As an agency, it’s also a little smaller and more centralized. Due to its location, it’s more urban. It also has a different feel to it, a different type of culture because it has only been around for five years and has not had as much time to form a community. In 2001 there was a huge economic crisis in Argentina that was horrible. A lot more people therefore needed access to credit, but they did not have the documents necessary to obtain it. During this time it was easier to facilitate solidarity because more people were alone and looking for help, anything they could find to better their situation. Therefore, people were more willing to join solidarity groups. The economic context was different. The entrepreneurs have now become more accustomed to the culture at Mitre, which is old and different from that here. Teresa Brogan is more like Marilo, which is also new. The two agencies have the same credit policies. They are more solitary, and the clients tend to be more individuals.

In your opinion what are the impacts that Protagonizar has had on the community?

They help by offering credit with a low rate, and, at the same time, the relationship with the people is more personal. Also, they work to facilitate teamwork through the solidarity groups. It’s not only about being an entrepreneur but also often includes a teaching that is more subtle about how to work. The entrepreneurs frequently do not know whether something is good or bad or their limits with credit, such as how much they should take. We listen and comment. We give their work the highest value through lending a hand or an ear. We are not merely a bank that says good morning and nothing more. No, we work so that there is a more familiar connection with us. It’s important to us that the relationship is not a dependent one.

What is the role of faith in your life and at Protagonizar?

It’s a little complicated, but a person always needs some faith. For a period of time, I was growing as a person and in my beliefs. I do not have a religion, but this is more difficult with a son. He’s 9 now, and I want him to have something else in life to hold on to, something that is apart from materialism. So, he’s starting classes of catechism in the church.

With Protagonizar, it is our intent to keep faith separate. We do not work to transmit the faith. Many people question where the funds come from, and we will then explain to them how Protagonizar started and the role that the Jesuits play.

What are the challenges for Protagonizar?

The hardest is to maintain the finances and stay balanced. Personally, another challenge is my own standing with the union. We are part of a union, everyone who works here, and each person is legally obliged to participate. Depending on the number of clients, there are three different levels that have different salaries. You enter at the first level, and then you reach the second level once you have around 150 clients. Finally, the third is when you have over 200. The process of moving up in levels is more complicated than simply the number, but it’s skewed this way because there is not really a union solely dedicated to our type of work, so we combine with another. Another challenge is the ability to increase the number of clients while also increasing the amount of available credit. It is important to be able to offer high credits to our entrepreneurs; however, we have a fixed amount of money to lend and therefore have to make value decisions—do we lend to the new smaller groups, which is more costly for us, or do we increase the loan value with our more established entrepreneurs who have been with us for several years? Another challenge is achieving self-sustainability, which means taking in enough money to cover the costs of each agency. Right now, Teresa Brogan and Marilo are not self-sustainable; however, as a whole, our foundation does cover this problem and is self-sustainable because our other two agencies make enough profit.

What are some of the differences between Protagonizar and a private bank or other microcredit organization?

The objective of the foundation is different, which then affects how we run the foundation. Our objective is to help the development of our entrepreneurs, not to obtain profit. Moreover, the relationship is more personal. It is not only personal but also a type of personal that you will not encounter in other situations. The way we teach has value as well.