A principal with Microcredit Global Grant project is guest speaker at the next meeting of Rotary Club of Fountain Hills.

Terry Lubsen, Microcredit Global Grant leader, will present an update on the project at the noon Nov 29 meeting.

The Rotary Club of Fountain Hills helps financially support a number of international service projects, including the Rotary International-sponsored microcredit bank in Nogales, Mexico. The Fountain Hills group has been supporting the bank since 2011.

The microcredit bank makes small business loans to women who want or have a business to help support their families. Small business loans are not available through Mexican commercial banks. The typical borrower is married with three children, and a husband who works in one of the factories earning $5-6 a day, working six days a week.

The microcredit lending process is time tested, well managed and supervised. Borrowers repay 98 percent of their loans on time.

Money is collected and immediately loaned again, sustaining the lending cycle and future borrowers. Interest is charged to recover actual administrative costs.

A typical borrower is Señora Gonzales, who makes and sells homemade tortillas. She has built her clientele over two years and now sells tortillas for $1 a dozen, 40 dozen tortillas daily.

She says because of the loans and her business success, her children will be the first generation in her family to get a high school education.

The Rotary Club of Fountain Hills will match up to $1,000 in community donations to the microcredit bank in Nogales, made through the Rotary Club Foundation. Contributions are tax deductible. Checks, payable to Fountain Hills Rotary Club Foundation may be mailed to Fountain Hills Rotary Club Foundation, Attn: Microcredit, P.O. Box 18188, Fountain Hills AZ 85269.

Rotary Club of Fountain Hills meets Tuesday at 11:45 a.m. at Fountain View Village upstairs dining room, 16455 E. Avenue of the Fountains.

For questions regarding the lending project or Rotary Club of Fountain Hills, contact Wayne Rish at 480-664-4820