The occasional job of washing her neighbors’ clothes to feed her family just wasn’t enough! When CEPAD came to the community of Elicenia del Carmen Obando Calero, she eagerly joined the Women’s Entrepreneurship Program with visions of regular income to take care of her three growing children, whom she’s raising alone.
Elicenia learned valuable skills about operating her own business, and received a microloan of $195 to open her very own corner store. She was so excited! But tragedy struck last fall when Hurricane Julia made landfall. She lost her house and her business. Instead of letting the hurricane take away her plans for the future, Elicenia began to think outside of the box to create a new path for herself. She decided to become a disciple of a CEPAD farmer and a family garden to learn how to grow her own produce, and sell it.
Elicenia now has a small garden where she grows tomatoes, peppers, squash, and watermelon. In the six weeks she has been harvesting, she has earned $125 so far, through her creativity and resourcefulness. The land she planted on belongs to a farmer friend, and one of the women in CEPAD’s Family Garden Program is sharing her water capturing system so she can water her plants. CEPAD provided some seeds, and Elicenia provides the labor.
This is the core hope behind CEPAD’s work; that no matter what challenges communities face, they would be able to use their new knowledge and skills to overcome, even if that looks different than what they originally planned.
Your generous gifts helped Elicenia to establish both her first and second small business. Thank you!