Help Guatemalan Women Achieve Self-Sufficiency
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Updates from the Field:
Updates from the Field (or Progress Reports) on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.com by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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Index of Updates from the Field
September 2008 Update
By Katherine Zavala - Coordinator of Programs, September 04, 2008 06:42 PM
In the community of Chi Armira, near San Martin Jilotepeque, Chimaltenango, the chicken-raising project managed by one of APROSADSE’s new groups (called Emmanuel) is finishing its first cycle.
The four members driving the project see a production of 9 cartons of eggs daily, sold at $2.70 each, equaling an income of $24.32 daily and $792.72 monthly. The group plans to sell the hens and use the money to reinvest in more chickens, starting the cycle again.
Furthermore, the group is mixing the chicken manure with sawdust to produce organic fertilizer to sell. The income from these sales helps them pay for their chicken feed, which has become very expensive now.
The president of the group, Ana, expressed the following:
“I’m thankful for the opportunity to get a microcredit from APROSADSE and to also receive training.”
June 2008 Update
By Katherine Zavala - Program Coordinator, IDEX, June 09, 2008 06:18 PM
In April Katherine Zavala, IDEX’s Coordinator of Programs, traveled to Guatemala to visit APROSADSE’s group of women. During her visit, she met with the group Women in Action (Mujeres de Accion) – a group of women that was featured in the last project update.
Katherine met with the women and discovered many them were new members, but five had been in the group since the beginning. Most of the women work individually with chicken-raising projects. Talking with them, the women shared several comments about their projects and how grateful they are to be in a group where they can share their problems and accomplishments and have support from one another.
Many of the members shared their experiences working with their projects such as Maria Julia. Maria Julia has had great success with her egg-laying hens and now sells eggs in her community. She was invited to join the group by her mother-in-law and she's now the vice-president of the group in her second year. Being vice-president has given her the confidence to speak more and to see that she can be one of the leaders of the group. For example the meeting with Katherine, the president of the group was unable to be present because she was studying and this allowed Maria Julia to open the meeting and introduce the group members.
Julia's mother-in-law, Maria Elena, is one of the five women who started the group Women in Action. She's also had success raising chickens and local varieties of turkey. During Christmas time she can sell her turkeys at a high price and receives a good income from those sales. As a result, she has bought a cow that is providing her family with milk. She also uses the chicken manure to make organic fertilizers for her plot of agricultural land.
Thanks to APROSADSE’s technical assistance, the group of women knows it has support in livestock rearing trainings that benefits their animals and the women’s income. Most women feel empowered that they are providing a source of income to their families. In addition, they can share their personal stories with their trusted group members, who have createda safe and comfortable environment that allows the women to be themselves and feel proud of their successes.
March 2008 Update
By Katherine Zavala - Program Coordinator, March 06, 2008 05:42 PM
In addition to the groups APROSADSE supports in the community of El Sauce Xesuyú, APROSADSE supports the group of women called Mujeres en Acción (Women in Action) from the community of Los Pinos Xesuj. These women meet every two weeks to review their income-generating projects and share with each other the challenges they have encountered as well as the positive results they have accomplished.
12 women from this 16-member group received microcredit last September to each start a chicken-raising project. Since then, every one of them has sold between two to three chickens to other community members. The chickens haven’t reached their production period yet, thus they haven’t been able to produce eggs to then sell them.
Before the women in this group received loans there were 11 women participating, but the women passed on the word within the community to motivate more women to join. The members would promote this group as an opportunity to not only receive a microcredit but to participate in trainings focused on themes such as health and nutrition, and to be able to save money. As a result, the group increased their members by 5 more women.
December 2007 Update
By Katherine Zavala - Coordinator of Programs, December 13, 2007 06:33 PM
Since the last project update, a new group of three men and two women from the community Chiarmira of El Sauce Xesuyú organized themselves to work together to start their own hen-raising project, following the success of the 11-family chicken cooperative that we reported on in October.
Together, this new group of five community members has purchased 300 egg-producing hens. With the assistance of APROSADSE, the group installed a proper chicken coup to place these 300 hens using wood, steel plates and cement blocs.
Since September, the group has been meeting monthly with APROSADSE to gain administrative and basic management skills to implement in their hen-raising project. APROSADSE is happy to report that after a short period of forming their own group, the five members are currently producing nine dozen of eggs per day, which they sell at the local market together with the 11-family chicken cooperative.
October 2007 Update
By Katherine Zavala - Programs Coordinator, October 11, 2007 08:19 PM
As part of this project a group of women from the community of El Sauce Xesuj carried out the workshops to help them develop a chicken cooperative. They learned how to build a chicken coup that was the right size and secure for the chickens. In addition they were taught how to prevent diseases that can afflict chickens and also treatment for common chicken ailments, should they fall ill. The women learned the importance of using organic feed and how to recycle chicken waste to use within their community for producing organic fertilizer for their crops.
After their chicken cooperative project had been implemented APROSADSE returned to the village to evaluate the results from hen-raising projects.
• 11 families acquired more knowledge about raising poultry in themes such as sanitation, common diseases in chickens, nutrition, chicken coup installations
• 11 women were able to contribute to their household food consumption through their chicken-raising projects
• 11 families are raising 30 to 50 local varieties of chickens and are currently in the process of selecting the ones that are good producers of eggs and meat
• They are using the organic fertilizer (chicken droppings) for their organic agriculture, phasing out of using chemical fertilizers from their plots of farm land
• The families are selling some of their chickens to raise money to maintain their farms and ultimately increase the number of chickens
• The community now has a group fund of $470 that was collected through loan repayments and women starting savings to be used as an emergency loan for any member of the group.
There were a few problems in that some of the chicken coups needed structural improvements to ensure greater protection from heat extremes for the chickens. But APROSADSE was able to help them with more training and also provided veterinary assistance for chickens with ailments beyond the community’s knowledge. But overall the project has been a huge success for El Sauce Xesuj.
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