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Alejandrina Fernández, 34, lives in the Maica Central area, stop #6, in Cercado province, Cochabamba department, a rural area on the outskirts of town.
Alejandrina is a single mother of a 12 year old son who goes to the local school. Her son’s father never acknowledged him; he abandoned them when he found out Alejandrina was pregnant.
She is a raw milk dairy farmer. He has five cows. She’s been in this line of work for 13 years. It requires much effort, time and dedication because she must work from very early in the morning every day milking the cows and taking the milk to the cooling tanks so that it won’t spoil and she lose her production. The places where she works lack adequate transportation services so she must carry her 30-40 liter milk cans on her back.
She toils like this every day. In addition, she grows pasturage to have feed for her cattle. These activities demand much effort and time, effort that Alejandrina does daily with help from her son.
In addition, she must care for her 83-year-old father who suffers from many age-related ailments: deafness, bone pain, stomach problems and many others. But, he’s an affectionate grandfather who spends his remaining days with his daughter and only grandson.
Alejandrina wants to improve her quality of life, to give her son better living conditions, that her son finish high school and study veterinary sciences is one of her greatest dreams.
Alejandrina has requested funds to buy another dairy cow so that production will increase and she can have more earnings that will allow her to have some savings for when her son needs funds for higher education expenses.
Translated from Spanish by Kiva volunteer anonymized. View original language description.
