These are the voices of four of our loan recipients, Rita, Palmira, Fausta and Andrea. For more images, access our photo gallery. For more stories from the field, view our 2010 Annual Evaluation (Part 1 / Part 2).

Rita Sangay Cueva, Independencia Village Bank
Andrea Huaripata, Jehova es mi Pastor Village Bank
Palmira Ruiz, Senor de los Milagros Village Bank
Fausta Vasquez Yntor, Virgen de Guadalupe Village Bank

Rita Sangay Cueva
Village Bank: Independencia

I am 36 years old and have one daughter. I live in the city of Cajamarca and I work in the mornings as a teacher assistant in a school for handicapped children, and in the afternoons I work in another business as an artisan vendor. I joined the village bank mostly for the economic assistance… I didn’t have my own money and I wanted to become more independent in my business and do things better… My husband passed and I was left alone with my daughter and the costs of raising my daughter. The courses I am taking through our project teach me and I am happier and they are really helping me.

Before I often felt alone, especially right after my husband passed away, having to do everything alone for my daughter. Now I don’t feel that as much and the courses have taken away some of the stress in my life. It is stressful when I don’t have enough money for my daughter. But when I am with the other women we vent and de-stress when we are together at classes. I am happy to get together with my companions and enjoy each others company.

I have participated in sewing with ribbon, jewelry, bakery, and chocolate class. I will use the knowledge I learned from appetizer class for sales and cooking this Christmas. I sell jewelry in my friend’s store, however in the future I want to have my own store. I also sell scarves. I sold some when I traveled to Cusco and Huancayo for Independence Day (July 28). The store I work in is an artisan store, so I can sell some of the new things I am learning to tourists. I would like more classes and to learn new and different things. Every time we learn something new and different we can rise above the competition and have a better business.

Andrea Huaripata
Village Bank: Jehova es mi Pastor

I live in Tartar Grande (countryside) and I have four children and am 44 years old. I am a stay at home mom and take care of our animals (hens, sheep and cows) for our own consumption and for business. I also weave by hand to help supplement our income. I decided to enter into the village bank again for the economic help. It is most challenging when there is no work. My husband is without work right now. With four children, the money doesn’t always cover all our necessities. This week he was working to cut firewood and when he works we are fine. He is a construction worker, but also will do anything and he needs to take whatever part time job that comes along.

I’ve taken a variety of classes; sewing with ribbon, artisan bags, bracelets, marmalade making. The literacy classes have greatly helped me; we had classes almost all year. It has been a long time since I was in school and studies and I had forgotten many things. This year we learned division and other mathematic operations and the Acta (official document), I didn’t know anything before. Thanks to your support, I was able to learn a lot from my literacy teacher, Lily. We have more experience and more knowledge of things we have forgotten. Thank you and we hope you will continue to support us and teach us. Since taking our literacy classes, I can now explain to my children mathematics and other things. I am happy I have learned more and now I can help them.

I dedicate time to continue practicing/making what I learned in the courses and at other meetings. I can make new things and I can sell them, helping our family have a little bit more money for food. For example, I have some cloth that I wove recently that I want to use to make more artisan bags.

Palmira Ruiz
Village Bank: Senor de los Milagros

I am 42 years old, and have 5 children and 2 grandchildren. I live in Bancos de Inca. I am working and making income with all the new skills we have learned through the courses. It is a great help for me. I have been in the village bank for four years now. It is a great help because it gives us a chance to invest our money into business which helps us with our family economy and transportation costs, food, and other things. Raising my children and all the costs associated with their schooling is the biggest challenge for me. Three are studying here in Cajamarca and I have one child in Puno and I send money to him. The income from my husband isn’t enough for all the costs we have with our children.

I have been taking classes in jewelry, chocolate making, sewing with ribbon, artisan bags and crochet (scarves and baby blankets). It has been good because I now make and sell all of these things. Since I started going to the workshops, I have learned so many new things…crafts that are not only pretty, but practical. They are new styles others don’t make in Los Bancos that I can sell very well.

Fausta Vasquez Yntor
Village Bank: Virgen de Guadalupe

I am 51 years old and I have two daughters who are 25 and 10. Thanks to my village bank, I work from home and sell my products from my home. I live in the neighborhood of Miraflores in the city of Cajamarca.

I heard about a group that was looking for responsible women for loans. I wanted that! I like to have capital to work in my own business. We started to have meetings and 12 people started the bank, the same 12 women are still in the village bank.

When my husband doesn’t have work it makes our economic situation difficult and also makes us depressed. This year my husband has been without work. With some of the classes I have learned new things that have helped me in my business. I’ve participated in crochet classes (ponchos, scarves, and baby blankets), purse making, and the leadership workshops. I also went to some of the business workshops when the young volunteers from the U.S. came to visit. They gave us good, new information and since their visit I have stopped working at TopiTop (retail store) where I realized I wasn’t making a decent profit with my crochet scarves. They were exploiting me, paying me so little to knit a lot. When I knit or crochet as my own business I am able to make more money. I make money off of the new stitch we learned with the wire in making scarves.

This has made a difference in my life in how I think about things. I don’t only learn new things for myself, but I often teach other women in my neighborhood. So when I teach other women I charge them a very small fee. I tell them, “What you learn will help you in your life, use your knowledge.” There are always women that wait for me and want to learn what I am doing, what is new, and what can I teach them.