Empower women through financial access & service

It´s a warm, bright sunny day in the community of Arauli in eastern Honduras. Kenia (47) wakes up bright and early every morning to start her day. She´s a single mother of 3 children.

Her husband walked out on the family a couple of years ago, leaving her as a single mother and head of her household. Kenia was a housewife, selling food she cooked at home. Kenia recalls “I would wake up early and start cooking, that way I could sell food and have some income. Still I wouldn’t have enough money to care for my family.” She never made enough money to sustain her children and she couldn´t even afford a home of her own.

The community of Araulí is dry and arid. There was a lack of water and many problems around the community, es-pecially for the children. World Vision developed a water project in the area and the community was trained in sani-tation and hygiene, and how to care for the water shed. Kenia became aware of World Vision when her children became sponsored.

Kenia began attending a savings and producer’s association meeting started by World Vision’s THRIVE project. As a single mother, she saw a great opportunity for her family. The ability to save her earnings and learn new farming techniques encouraged her. She learned how to produce better quality vegetables and how to diversify from the traditional Honduran diet of corn, beans and coffee. Now she was able to provide a higher quality product to the local market.

Kenia’s knowledge has been put to the test. She now works in community plots, helping others and applying the techniques that THRIVE has taught her. Since many women use to work in jobs that did not provide enough income to support their families, the THRIVE program has become empowering. The producer’s association has grown from 8 members to 113.

Kenia took out a loan from the savings group to open her own small business. With the loan she bought some chickens and began selling the eggs they laid. The new business helped her grow her savings and she has been able to support her children in a better way. Kenia says, “Being organized has been key to moving forward, as a single mother.”

Kenia started small, saving one dollar a month. Eventually she saved five dollars a month. Now she has nearly $3,000 saved and she wants to invest it in buying her own plot of land to be able to grow her own crops. Her three children have received an education. Her old-est is now 27 years old, her second is 21 years old and is an industrial engineer. Her youngest daughter is 8 years old and is attending ele-mentary school.

Kenia says, “I thank [the producer’s association] for talking me in as a member, and God, because I was able to support my family and give my children an education.”