One year after collaborating with a foundation to help Latina businesses get loan capital, Jennifer Lopez met with 20 Latina entrepreneurs in her birthplace of the Bronx on Friday.
Grameen America teamed with the multi-hyphenate actress to speed its aim of delivering $14 billion in loan financing to 600,000 low-income Latina company owners by 2030, including Lissette Mims.
Her aim was to be an esthetician, and at 54, she owns Bella Shique spa, where Lopez held her celebration Friday.
Have worked my whole life and still love it. No matter my age, my dream is worthy, Mims stated.
This program is financing poor women in an environment when national banks are less likely to lend to Latino-owned enterprises than white-owned businesses,
according to the Stanford Latino Entrepreneurship Initiative's 2022 State of Latino Entrepreneurship Report. Lopez's team estimates that Grameen America,
founded by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus in 2008, would lend $1 billion to Latina women this year. Women obtain funding, training, and instruction to run their small companies.
Lopez discussed their enterprises and how they've been doing since receiving business loans. She told personal experiences on why she gives back.