Adelante Sisters

Last week when I went to visit Tocoa (about 2 hours east of La Ceiba), I met Elvia and Elida Peraza, two sisters in an Adelante Asamblea in the rural areas around Tocoa. I chatted with them, both eager to tell me about their work and activities, and share the stories of their loans with Adelante, which seem to have followed different paths.

Elvia engages in a diverse range of activities for subsistence and income, and has used her Adelante loans to support these activities. She sells medicines, both natural and pharmaceutical, to her neighbours and friends, raises farm animals, and does a wide array of farm contract work. She has used her four loans with Adelante to buy pigs to sell when grown, a calf for milk production, and a chainsaw and wooden cart, which she uses for working on farms. Farmers and landowners will hire Elvia and her husband to prune their orange trees, harvest their fields, or transport sand, wood or a harvest.

On the other hand, Elida has focused her loan investments primarily on raising animals. Prior to her involvement with Adelante, Elida worked in agriculture, growing and selling corn. Unfortunately a few years ago, Elida was assaulted and robbed, and now feels safer and more comfortable in her own home. She says raising animals is perfect for her: she enjoys working with animals, and is able to stay close to home. So Elida has used her loans with Adelante to buy farm animals, and they are a good investment. For 600 Lempiras, she can buy a two month old calf, two months later she can sell it for 2000 Lempiras.

Elida lives with her husband and two of her children, aged 19 and 21, both of whom work on local farms. She has four other children who have moved away to San Pedro Sula (Honduras’ commercial centre) and the United States. Her sister, Elvia, lives with her husband, and one adopted daughter. Elvia and her husband never had children of their own, but when a neighbouring couple died of AIDS, Elvia and her husband took in their five year old child. They raised her as their own, and she is now 15 and a student at the local school.

The two sisters also both have dreams for future loans with Adelante. Elvia hopes to continue diversifying her small business activities, by building a candy shop in front of her house. Elida hopes to invest in the place she feels most comfortable: her home. She currently lives in a house made of dried mud and a thatched roof, and she is using her Adelante savings to build a sturdier house made of cement blocks.