Our team has really enjoyed spending time with our partners in Bolivia, including a savings group meeting at the home of the woman in the picture here, Maxima.
Maxima came to Tarija from an area in the Andean mountains, and she didn’t speak Spanish. She told us that when people tried to speak to her, she couldn’t understand, so she often hung her head in shame. When she needed to send her children for medical care, she couldn’t understand the people at the clinic, so she had to find friends who could speak Spanish and were willing to take her children for care. Her husband was a good carpenter, but he was injured and could not continue his job.
Maxima was very poor, but she joined a Five Talents group and learned to speak Spanish. She also used money from her group to buy an oven, and she now makes 400 pieces of bread a day. Her husband works alongside her to make the bread.
She and her husband have bought land and plan to pass a house on to their daughters. One of them even hopes to study to become a bio-engineer.
Most important, Maxima has a wonderful smile, and she now holds her head high.
-Dale Stanton-Hoyle,
Executive Director