Adding to basket
The complete outfit or “traje” of the Maya is colorful and distinctive. Styles, woven or embroidered symbols, and colors change throughout the years.
For five years, twenty-five-year-old Pascuala has been selling these beautiful garments as a street vendor outside of her neighborhood in the department/state of Solola. When the business is quite busy, her mother helps her. Pascuala also farms corn. She sells part of it at the wholesale level and keeps part for her consumption.
She requests her second Kiva loan to buy more traditional textiles in the latest styles and colors. Her goals are to increase business and have her own storefront to display and sell her textiles.
Pascuala is married to a man who left to seek work in the United States a few years ago. Although she graduated with her diploma as a kindergarten teacher, she was unable to find work as a teacher. She joined six Maya K’iche women who live in the “boca costa” region in the department of Solola and formed the Friendship Bridge Trust Bank “Sector Paraiso”. These women sell traditional textiles and farm corn, while others have small convenience stores. They benefit greatly from participating in the “Microcredit Plus” program of loans, monthly educational training (business, health, family, women) and bi-monthly health care services (exams, consults, family planning)..
Thank you, Kiva lenders for lending a helping hand to Pascuala and the women in the “Sector Paraiso” Trust Bank!
In this group: Isabel, Catarina , Rosita, Lucia, Pascuala, Pascuala , Manuela
