Economic Empowerment for 200 Women in Nicaragua

Miriam currently lives in the community of Cruz Verde approximately 10.88 miles from Self-Help International head office, or a 20-minutes driving. She is 48 years old, single with three children (two girls and a 13-year-old boy), the daughters are married and live in their own homes, her eldest daughter Elda lives in the community of Mexico and her second daughter Maritza lives in the same community as her mother. Miriam lives alone with her youngest son who is currently studying high school and her mother's greatest desire is for her son to get a degree, which is why she frequently works hard to support him.

Miriam is a person who has worked to get ahead from a very young age. At the age of 16 years old, she began to have a relationship with Pedro, after 2 years of being together, she got pregnant with their first daughter named Elda, a year later she got pregnant with her second daughter Maritza and to raise their two daughters they (Miriam and her partner) went to take care of a farm who owners paid them US$60 American dollars a month, but the property owners also allowed Miriam and her boybriend to use part of the land to plant vegetables such as: cucumbers, Giant granadilla, squashes, and zucchini once the harvest was obtained Miriam would go out to sell them and thus they would buy the daily meal and any extra expenses for the girls, they also raised pigs but they saved that extra money and later on bought a couple of calves and after two years those calves grew up and reproduced and as the years passed Miriam became pregnant with her third child named Jonny. The years passed and Miriam and her boyfriend finally reached their dream of buy a house where they spent all their savings even their livestock which were sold to cover it.

After they own their house they decided to stop taking care of the farm and start living a different life, then they began a small business of a grocery store and with their earnings they bought more products. Everything was going well, but everything began to change when Pedro (Miriam's boyfriend) began to waste money on addictions, even so, Miriam always worked without giving much importance to what was happening, but addictions were not enough for Pedro but also he sold the house without Miriam's consent and the new owners came to evict her and her children. At that moment, Miriam's world fell apart without knowing what to do, but she had to leave her house. Pedro runned away with all the money from the house and the things he had sold, by that time Miriam was pregnant of her fourth child, it was very difficult for her to hear the news, but she had to get ahead to support their children.

Miriam had only one option ask a friend to allow her and her family to stay in her house while she was able to find another plece, and thanks to her friend she started over again. The eldest daughter helped her to take care of her other children while Miriam went out to sell and exchange products in the surrounding communities, and she lived like this throughout her pregnancy. She continued like this until 6 years latter where she met another person (boyfriend) and began a life together, obtaining their own home again.

Miriam and her boyfriend started taking care of another farm in the Quinta Lidia community, while they were on the farm, they decided to leave Elda, Miriam's eldest daughter, in the house, who was also in charge of her other two brothers who followed her and the youngest brother was taken by Miriam and her boyfriend to the farm and since they both had experience, managing the farm was very easy for them. Unfortunately, after three years of taking care of the farm, Jonny, Miriam's third son, became seriously ill and she returned to take care of her son because he was rushed to the hospital, but unfortunately he died after suffering this torment, she went into depression in such a way that she could neither return to the farm to continue caring for it, or manage her personal relationship with her boyfriend.

While living through this difficult situation, Mirian fell into a deep depression, but once, while talking with one of her friends, she heard about a program that supports women who have these types of needs, and she found it interesting to find out more about this project and the Organization.

She thought that it was appropriate to seek for help since she was suffering not only psychologically, emotionally but also financially, so she went to the Self-Help International Central Office which is also located in the community of Quinta Lidia and spoke to the person in charge of the program and being accepted to be part of the program, she was very happy attending the first training and all the others including self-esteem training, women's health, among others, all given by the Program Officer at that time, Yolanda Fletes. Months after becoming a member of the program, Miriam received 4 pounds of INTA - NUTRADER maize and was trained in the double row technic, also promoted by the Women's Empowerment and Agriculture programs, both from Self - Help International. .

Once the plot was planted and when the corn was harvested, Miriam was delighted with the results. For the next planting season, Miriam asked the Women's Empowerment program for a finance to plant more corn in a larger area. Her request was approved and she sowed with her children and her harvest was a success, so she decided not to sell her corn, instead she thought about starting a business to make and sell tortillas and thus increase her profits, she paid her loan in a timely manner and with her profit she invested in her house making a porch.

The next financing that Miriam requested from the Women's Empowerment Program was for the purchase of a large industrial griddle to make more tortillas in less time. This allows Miriam to grow faster with modernization and in addition to employed two people (one one of them is her daughter and the other a neighbor) who help Miriam with the preparation of the tortillas, cornbread and nacatamales (a type of tamales). With her earnings this time, Miriam ordered the planting of corn (she paid other people) to plant the corn and she no longer did it with her children, of course, always using the same double row technique and also requested the elaboration of an improved oven, also promoted by the organization because she is no longer only makes tortillas but also cornbread.

Miriam expresses that she now feels so empowered and grateful to the Women's Empowerment program for the way in which the program have helped her and not only her but also her entire family, since all those trainings and improvements that she has noticed in her life have served her as therapy because she feels useful when working and supports her home and her son's education, from the income generated by her business she invests to grow.

Miriam was not only satisfied with her being part of the women's empowerment program, but also took on the task of teaching her daughters and neighbors who are learning from her great example by involving them in the program, and Miriam asks them to follow the recommendations of the program if they really want to progress little by little. Miriam's daughters say that is why they want this program to always support women entrepreneurs so that they can get ahead without fear of success, as their mother has done.

Sarita, 37 years old, married, mother of two girls, Karla 7 years old, and Hazling, 11 years old, she currently lives with her whole family in the community named Cruz Verde which is about 18.65 miles away from the main city of Rio San Juan – Nicaragua. Sarita and her family used to live in the community named Quinta Lidia, which was barely 4.35 miles away from the San Carlos city, but her husband had to travel a long distance to his work every day since he is a teacher in the community of Cruz Verde, after some time, the couple decided that it was better for them all to move together in one place to avoid more expenses and fatigue for the husband who used to daily commute those distances back and forth. Sarita along with her two daughters moved to Cruz Verde a mid last year, her daughters who are still in elementary school were moved to the school where their father is teaching.

In the community of Quinta Lidia, Sarita used to have a small business of selling few items of clothing as of pants, shorts, shirts, and T- shirts for adults and childrens. But, Sarita´s dream was to grow her business because she said she wanted to help her husband with the household expenses and for the education of their girls. On one occasion Sarita was invited by the Empwering Women Program officer to be part of this program in which she became interested and began to participate in all the training sessions that she considered necessary for her personal and business growth. Once she moved to the Cruz Verde community she look greater opportunity for her to achieve her dream as this community had more population density of people living on it. By that time she was receiving a basic bookkeeping training session from Self – Help International trought the women program, after those training she received loans provided by Self - Help International which were used by her to purchase more products for her small business this time she include more varieties of products such as clothes, purses, backpacks and shoes, and with the profits obtained, she reinvested in her small store until she had a more assorted, profitable business.   

Sarita shared with the Women Program Officer that when she lived in the community of Quinta Lidia she did not use her phone often, because her husband considered it was an unnecessary expense to make, and she was obedient all that time and didn´t use the phone if it was not really an emergencies, but when she arrived to the Cruz Verde community and stared her chlothes business, the customers began to ask her for her phone number in order to place orders online using differents platforms as of Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, inmediately Sarita realized how she was waisting her time and loosing money by not using those platforms to make bussiness transactions. She continued saying that she was disconnected from technology and starting that day she shared her phone number with all of her customers, because she realized that through the media she was selling more than ever, then, she decided that she had to use the media to grow in her business, realizing that she could not only promote her products but also that she could purchase from her suppliers. With the support of her two daughters (who by nature understand technology better than her) now Sarita has been learning how to use better her phone applications and platforms and sees the benefit of those skills to grow in her business. She remembers that in a training offered by the Women's Empowerment Program officer, she always advised to all of the women that the use of technology and media in the propper way can help people lives as everyone can be benefit by sharing information, promoting products or the simple fact of greet their families members, the loved ones.

Sarita now bring her two little daughters with her to participate in the training thaught by Self-Help International, because she now understands that the sooner they learn, the sooner they can make changes for a better future. Her childs have had participated in craft training such as making Piñatas and Funeral Crowns arragements, Sarita told us that when the girls learned how to make the piñatas they went to their homes very excited and made a piñata to celebrate a cousin's birthday, they are passionate about crafts and it is something that they like and in the future they can take advantage of those skills.

Sarita appreciate all the support she, other women and young girls are having in Self – Help International, because she feels that she have been changing for good in her attitudes, and raise her self-esteem, which is often low she said. And continued saying: I personally noticed my change not only in my business growth but also in personal life, my daughters and husband by accepting the changes for the better, now my husband sees that it is not use the media only to waste time and money, but to make my business flow and grow little by little.