Adding to basket
The members of the “Chicas Fresas” communal bank meet every two weeks in the city of Portoviejo’s San Pablo neighborhood. This is a densely populated marginal urban zone in this city; the members are very kind and hardworking.
Zoila, 41, lives her. She’s in a common law relationship and has five children; two are adults and the other three are 16, 14 and 8 years old. The older ones attend university, two are in secondary school and the youngest is in elementary school. Her husband is a merchant.
She has a grocery store at home where she sells all types of products like rice, sugar, oil, detergent, kitchen supplies, etc. In the afternoons she also sells prepared food but only during the school year because she’s near a school. She works every day from 6am until 11pm. Her children help her at work because it’s sometimes very tiring for her by herself. She’s been in business over 15 years and does very well.
She will use this loan to better stock her store; she will buy rice, sugar, oil, detergents, kitchen supplies and other basic staples. She’s been in the communal bank two years and likes it because the loans have helped her business very much. Her dream is to see her children fulfilled and this is what she strives for day to day.
Translated from Spanish by Kiva volunteer anonymized. View original language description.
