Micro-credits for Baru Island entrepreneurs

Efren is 61 years old. He was borne in Baru and to him the Ocean is his everything.

His connection with the Sea started when we was a little boy and he used to swim in the access canals to Baru, were he watched the boats go in and out and he dreamed of being a Captain.

When Efren’s mother asked him to go with her to Cartagena, he couldn’t sleep waiting for the next day to come so that he could go on boat.

Efren never forgot about his dream. When he was 19, he started working in a farm close to his town. When he had saved enough money to buy wood and a motor, he resigned and invested all his savings in building a canoe, with his father’s help.

Since then, Efren has sailed the Caribbean Sea for 40 years, transporting natives and visitors to Cartagena, the Rosario Islands and White Beach. Because of his job, he has been able to race his 9 children.

Along these 40 years, Efren has had different canoes to transport between 10 and 15 passengers. It was only 13 years ago that he could buy his first fiberglass boat which he named “Qué qué” or “What what”. Now he can transport 30 people.

Thanks to the microcredit Efren got with the project, he was able to renew all the life vests of the boat and for the first time buy children life vests.

Efren aims to keep working towards providing a better service to his clients and to keep living with the calm and the freedom that, in his own words, “only the Sea can give you”.  

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Cruz defines herself as an entrepreneur, a trained, strong and courageous woman, who has learned to confront any situation life has bring to her.

She mentioned to have 3 passions: Leadership, Early Childhood Education and Pastry.

Since she was very young, she enjoyed helping people in her community through projects she wrote so she became a local leader. Afterwards, she joined the local Community Council, from where she supports social projects.

Her love for the community work, led her to receive training in how to attend early childhood, so she started working with children, pregnant and nursing women. She is currently working with them and other community leaders in an education project, based on Afro Culture.

At the same time, she was trained in Pastry, Bakery, Hygiene and Food Handling, Food and Beverage Service, Entrepreneurship, Customer Service and Basic Accounting, in order to start her own business: a Bakery.

Her days are full of work: She wakes up, get everything she needs for work, head to the institution were she is an Educational Agent and in the afternoon after she finishes work she bake cakes, cupcakes, and prepare desserts that she sells to the local stores and school cafeterias. She also bakes cakes for birthdays parties, weddings and other events that take place in Baru.

Her goal is to have an independent space for her business, which is currently in her house and to be able to bake more and sell more cakes and other desserts.

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