Adding to basket
The “Nueva Ciudad Alfaro” (New City of Alfaro) communal bank meets in the beautiful Montecristi land, Manabí province, surrounded by the most beautiful scenery and beaches of the region. This canton is noted for the many resident artisans that manufacture a variety of crafts out of toquilla palm fronds (from which the mis-named ‘Panama’ hats are made) and tagua (tagua nut, sometimes known as ‘vegetable ivory’).
One of the group members is Mirella who, for the last three loan cycles, has been collaborating with the foundation. She has been married for 14 years and has two children. She is an informal merchant and has sold beauty products and clothing for the entire family; her sales are catalogue based.
She takes orders from her customers and then delivers the goods to their homes; she has been in this line of work for 12 years.
Ever since Mirella started this business she hasn’t wanted to give it up; she tells us that it is a way for her to get ahead in life and help her husband meet household expenses. She is happy to work and Fundación Espoir provides the opportunity for her business to grow more each day.
She will use this new funding in part to buy more Avon, Yanbal and Esika beauty products and partly to buy clothing.
Her dream is to be able to buy a car to facilitate her work so that she can go to other areas to secure more customers.
Translated from Spanish by Kiva volunteer anonymized. View original language description.
