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About El Zurzular

El Zurzular is a community of about 87 homes and a population of
approximately 520 people.  Located at an elevation of over 5,000 feet It is
an extremely mountainous community, belonging to the municipality of
Cantarranas, in the department of Francisco Morazan.  El Zurzular is an
agricultural community relying on the production of corn and beans for
sustenance.  The primary cash crop in the community is coffee.  Families
receive income once a year during the coffee season and coffee prices
have an extreme influence on that income. There is a health center in the
community which also serves many surrounding communities and villages. 
As Global Brigade’s first Holistic Model community, El Zurzular has a
community bank, a middle school built by Architecture Brigades, public
health infrastructure in all homes and Community Health Workers.

El Zurzular's Economic Challenge

The majority of the community members rely on agricultural work to
support themselves and their families. In Zurzular, the primary crop is
coffee. During the planting and harvest seasons, many workers who have
their own land sell their coffee through intermediaries. During the planting
season, the farmers do not have income to be able to  afford pesticides,
fertilizers, and other products that are needed to cultivate their crops in
addition to supporting their families.  The intermediaries pay the workers
in advance with a high interest rate loan for the crops leaving the workers
with a low income and typically a significant amount of debt. Other than the
intermediaries, there is no other access to credit or savings in rural areas.
The community banks (cajas rurales) have been formed throughout
Honduras to provide savings and loans with an affordable interest rate in
rural areas and also capital to support other community projects.

The Microfinance Solution for El Zurzular

The Microfinance Brigades in-counrty team and Brigaders from eight different universities have worked in El Zurzular from November 2010 until February 2013.  During this time, staff and volunteers have  worked with community members of the Caja Rural to:
     •  Train and establish a community bank
     •  Provide in home financial consultations to community members
     •  Establish an agriculture store which sells pesticides and fertilizers

        to the community.
     •  Establish a micro-enterprise focused on coffee processing  so that
        the farmers can have more control over the prices they sell their
        coffee at.
     •  Provide educational seminars to adults and children in the
        community on the importance of savings, loans, and interest rates.

To ensure the sustainability of the Caja Rural, the Microfinance Program provides continuous follow-up and education to the members of the Caja Rural.
 
Since the establishment of the Caja Rural, every family in the community has benefited from a loan. With the profits from the Public Health Brigades loans, the Caja Rural was able to invest into the installation of electricity in the community of Zurzular.

With the start-up of the micro-enterprise the Caja Rural will be able to economically sustain the community and help farmers have more control over their coffee production and sales, which will ultimately lead to an increase in income and more financial independence.

Current Status

Last Visit: February 16, 2013
After several successful brigades, the Microfinance Brigades program exited the community of Zurzular following the Richard Ivey School of Business brigade. Exiting the community signifies that the program will no longer be bringing brigades to this community and will gradually lessen community follow-up to every 6 months -1 year.  By leaving the community, the programs trusts that the community members are capable of sustaining the community bank as the financial backbone of its community with little to no dependence on Global Brigades

Visit Other Programs in El Zurzular

Global Brigades strives to implement a model of Holistic Development in communities through a system of collectively implementing health, economic, and education initiatives to strategically meet a community's development goals. Learn more about the other programs being implemented in El Zurzular:

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