Jenny went back to the neighborhood to check on the Latina business owners.
Tuesday, one year after teaming up with a foundation to support Latina businesses with loan funding, Jennifer Lopez paid a visit to 20 female Latina entrepreneurs in the Bronx, New York.
One of the business owners who received a loan from Grameen America is Lissette Mims. The organization teamed up with the multi-hyphenate actress to hasten the distribution of $14 billion in loan capital to 600,000 low-income Latina business owners nationwide by 2030.
The 54-year-old owner of Bella Shique Spa, where Lopez had her event on Tuesday, once pursued her ambition of becoming an esthetician.
“Despite working my entire life, I still have a desire. Regardless of my age, my dream is worthy, stated Mims.
According to the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative’s 2022 State of Latino Entrepreneurship Report, national banks are less inclined to lend to Latino-owned firms than they are to white-owned businesses, therefore this initiative provides funding to women who are poor in a time when Latino-owned enterprises are less likely to do so. Lopez’s group claims that the Grameen America organization, which Muhammad Yunus, the 2008 Nobel Peace Prize winner, created, has planned to disburse an unprecedented $1 billion in loans to Latina women this year alone. Women get education and training to assist them in running their small enterprises in addition to funding.
Lopez told the women, “It is a life-changing thing when you’re not able to fund your business, or had an idea or a dream that you can’t build upon because you’re just lacking capital when you go to a bank and they won’t give it to you because you’re Latina, because they don’t think that’s something they should invest in,”
Two women who run flower shops and tire shops, respectively, were among the women who attended the event and have received support from the program.
“On Tuesday, I ran into a few of the girls there, and we were all talking about how wonderful it is. Some of these ladies work multiple jobs, have three kids, and don’t know what they’d do without Jennifer, according to Mims.
Lopez discussed their companies with them and inquired about their progress since receiving their business loans. She also discussed her motivation for giving back through personal anecdotes.
“I know my grandma, who was a seamstress and sewed lovely garments, would have wanted to have her own shop. My mother worked for Tupperware and, in a way, had her own business, Lopez said. She never even considered doing that, even if she had the means to do so or her own storefront. She was not even given the chance to consider it.
Through Lopez’s mentoring, Mims claimed that she is “reminded every day to push forward.” I’ve always been hired and dismissed, so I’m quite appreciative of where I am now.
The women should always remember to put one foot in front of the other, says Lopez.
The celebrity remarked, “All you have to do to succeed, all you have to do to be extraordinary, is not give up.”