Adding to basket
It has been customary in communities in the Guatemalan Highlands for girls to stay home and help their mothers with household chores or weave rather than attend school. This is what happened to thirty-eight-year-old Juana, who only attended school for two years. However, now she has seven children of her own and is proud that the older ones completed eight years of education and three attend elementary school!
Juana farms corn, keeps some for her family and sells some. She has four employees who help her during the harvest. Her children help out as well. Her husband is a gardener. She has also raised chickens for seven years. Her goals are to increase the size and yield of the farm and add pigs to her livestock business. She is requesting her second Kiva loan to buy fertilizer for her farm and more chickens to raise.
Juana is the Treasurer of the Friendship Bridge Trust Bank group “Sabias del Chaguital” in the department/state of Suchitepequez. There are six other Maya Tz'utujil women in the group. They feel fortunate to participate in the “Microcredit Plus” program of loans, including monthly educational training and bi-monthly health care services. Recent topics for the training have been about business administration and loan management, as well as how to be a successful entrepreneur. Other topics are about health, family, and women.
Thank you, Kiva lenders, for lending a helping hand!
In this group: Juana, Juana , Elena Juana , Concepcion, Maria Cecilia , Maria, Juana
