Help Guatemalan Women Achieve Self-Sufficiency

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.