Our latest update comes from the field. We hope you’ll enjoy this profile on one woman whose life has been touched through your generous support.

Maria Hermelinda lives on the edge of a residential road in a small indigenous community called Sauce Xejus. She is 36 years old, married, and has two children who attend the community’s primary school.

In addition to taking care of her family, cooking, and cleaning, she maintains a little store in her house selling sundries and groceries. Maria Hermalinda says that when she got married, she and her husband did not have their own house and they worked very hard for what they have now. She also sells fruit and vegetables at her children’s school during their lunch breaks in order to encourage healthy eating. She does this daily to make a little money and tends to her store the rest of the day while carrying out her family duties.

And twice a month she takes part in the Sauce Xejus’s community group sponsored by APROSADSE and contributes monthly to the savings fund that the group manages for loans to each other. She also participates in training workshops that are carried out at APROSADSE’s main offices. She says she benefits from the trainings that she receives, and also manages a fund of Q 2,500.00 (US$300) that she has invested in her small store. Maria Hermelinda is a very dynamic woman and the group says she has the potential to be a leader.

She constantly expresses her gratitude towards her community group and remarks how having her own income allows her children to continue to attend school. She has a dream to see her children educated and one day and have professional careers. And, upon finishing such an expression, she always smiles.

Patrociña’s community is one of 15 currently receiving support through APROSADSE's Agroecology Program, which provides loans and training to groups and individuals for income-generating projects, such as livestock rearing. These are lucrative options for families with limited access to arable land. The program also promotes group savings and facilitates monthly technical assistance to each group.

At her neighbor’s urging Patrociña attended a meeting sponsored by APROSADSE. The more she learned, the more it became clear. If she took a loan to buy a cow the milk could both provide her 5 growing children with much needed nutrition. With the income from leftover milk she could send her children to school. And if you were to ask Patrociña about her dreams, she would be quick to tell you. What she wants most in life is to see her children go to school.

Few cars make it down to El Carmen, Patrociña’s tiny community of 30 families. There are no paved roads. Patrociña has a long and dusty walk to market in San Martín Jilotepeque. Even there staples like eggs and milk and fresh produce are often too expensive. Her family lives on a small, arid plot of land in a 2-room house, the walls patched together with maize stalks and steel plates.

Patrociña never envisioned she would be able to support her family on her own. But through a combination of small loans and technical training in livestock rearing, she has discovered an innate sense for business.

In her group meetings, Patrociña is always the first to speak up; ready to share how she is maximizing her original investment. First, she sold her original cow. With the proceeds, she paid back her loan and bought another cow. She was able to sell that cow and buy a bull, which she calculated would yield an even higher profit at market.

Her children are growing strong on the milk they have to drink. Plus her cow is also providing enough milk she can sell it to neighboring families. And, as she will proudly tell you, she can now afford to purchase uniforms, school supplies and pay for tuition for her 3 eldest school-age children.

Patrociña is not content to stop there. Her entrepreneurial spirit has encouraged her to expand her micro enterprise by making cheese. She has also begun to use organic and free fertilizer (from her cows) for her two plots of the local chayote squash. In a short time, she has watched her income grow from zero into a steady stream.

Though her new life is busier than ever, Patrociña finds time to attend health-training workshops at APROSADSE’s main office and returns motivated to extend her newfound tips in nutrition and family health to the rest of the women in her community.

Give to support women like Patrociña through March 27, 2009 and your donation will be matched.

Pictures:

• Patrociña and her cow. (JPG)

Towards the end of 2008, 7 rural families in the Cruz Nueva group found success through hard work and the support from APROSADSE. The families shared in a chicken-raising farm project starting with 1,000 chickens that continue to produce an abundance of eggs that they then sell at the local market.

While the group owns their project, APROSADSE provides technical assistance twice a month to help the families maintain their project. Assistance has included vaccinations and trainings on the care of chickens, guidance on chicken coop construction and maintenance, and trainings on financial management and business administration.

With your donations, APROSADSE currently supports 64 families with technical project assistance as part of their Agroecology Program.

In 2008, the Los Pinos de Xesuj group achieved regular income-generation through APROSADSE’s chicken project. The group of 16 women sold 3 to 5 chickens at $8.10 each week, and 1 to 2 turkeys every three months at $27.03 each. This amounted to a weekly income of $13.50-$20.27, which equals a monthly income of $54.00-$81.00. Additionally, the group cared for 1,000 hen-laying eggs, also providing a substantial income. The project benefits not just the women, but also a total of 56 family members.

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.