María Argentina Osorto traveled from Choluteca, Honduras, to speak at the Sixth Annual Business of Hope Luncheon. She is the owner of a successful grocery store thanks to her hard work, strong business sense and her access to microloans from Global Partnerships' microfinance partner FUNDAHMICRO.

Married at 14 and the mother of five by the time she was 21, Argentina started out selling vegetables near the school that her children attended so that she could keep an eye on them while she worked. She used her first microloans to build that business and her savings, until eventually she was able to rent a stall at the local market.

After Hurricane Mitch destroyed her home and business and wiped out her savings in 1998, she had to start again. As part of a disaster relief effort, her family was relocated to a small house in a new neighborhood, where in 2002 she joined a communal association of 10 women through FUNDAHMICRO. With a $155 loan, Argentina began a new business, making and selling churros and charamuscas, popular Honduran snacks.

Today, after repaying 11 successively larger loans (her most recent being $1,600), she has grown her business into a small but thriving grocery store attached to her house.

Each day she gets up at 5:00 a.m. and goes to the local market to buy all that she needs for her store, returning home by 8:00 a.m. so that her husband, Leonardo (whom she married 35 years ago), can get to his job at a local manufacturing business. Recently, she purchased a plot of land and two cows, with the hopes of expanding her inventory to include fresh milk and meat.

The profits from Argentina’s businesses have allowed her to send all five of her children to high school and university. According to Argentina, the secret to her success is managing her money efficiently. “Do not borrow money if you won’t use it to work and make profits,” she advises. “Work to make progress, not just to pay a loan.”