Microfinance - for better or worse? : A study on how microfinance impacts the livelihood of families with disabled children around Lake Atitlán, Guatemala

Abstract: Most of the disabled people in the world live in poverty. In order to escape poverty, microfinance is said to be a solution. The Microfinance Institutions do not, however, incorporate everybody who is poor in their programs, which could be assumed. Disabled people and their families are a group which many times are not included in these programs. Since they many times already faces discrimination and also are excluded from the rest of the society they do not have a solution on how to escape from poverty. In Guatemala where the disabled people most surely also are indigenous gives them double stigmas. The purpose of this research is to identify what impacts microfinance has on the livelihoods of the families with disabled children around Lake Atitlán, Guatemala and subsequent to this what adaptations the MFIs should take when working with families within this target group. In order to collect the data a field study around Lake Atitlán, Guatemala with semi-structured interviews was done. The respondents were mothers of disabled children and employees of two NGOs. To analyze the results, DFIDs Sustainable Livelihood Framework was used. Since the frameworks give a broader spectrum than just one category of life it is easier to see what impacts the microfinance have on the livelihood and what the respondents are lacking in the microcredit program. The research demonstrates that microfinance has positive impacts on some aspects of the livelihoods of families of disabled children even if not to many MFIs within the country focus on them. Another conclusion of the study is that MFIs do not need to make big adaptions in order to work with this specific target group, they need however, inform about disabilities in order to end discrimination.