Alma Flores & Marlo Landaverde
Over 25 years ago Marlo Landaverde was just a high school teacher working in a public school in Trojes. But even then he had a dream of providing the highest level of education to the children he saw growing up around him. Luckily for him he met a primary school teacher, Alma Flores, who shared his dream. Alma and Marlo were married 22 years ago, and have been working together ever since to make their dream into a reality.
In 2010, they decided to put their dream into motion and opened a private school in Trojes. The location for their school was small and they only had enough funds to open a primary school. Their initial funding came from a loan of L 480,000 from the bank Ban País. The hardest part at the beginning, according to Alma and Marlo, was selling an image of their school to the people of Trojes. It was hard to convince people to send their children to a private school when there was a public school in town as well.
In 2013 a teacher at the school, who is a client of FINCA, told Alma and Marlo about the opportunities they could have with a loan from FINCA. The couple, who had bring dreams for their school, decided to give it a try. In June of 2013 they received a loan of L 500,000 from FINCA. With this loan their school has exploded. Alma and Marlo have used the money to add another story to the building, and to buy both new office equipment and a computer lab for their students. But best of all, they were able to add a high school!
Today, there are 225 students at the school. Students in the primary school take classes in the mornings, while the older students attend classes in the afternoons. Alma and Marlo are the principals as well as teachers at the school. They have also saved enough money to buy a new house for themselves and their three children. They hope to continue improving the infrastructure of their school so that they can one day fulfill their dream of offering the highest level of education in Trojes.