GLORIA ROMELIA
At a young age Gloria’s father left her mother and she was sent to live with her grandmother. In part due to cultural beliefs at the time (particularly among her grandmother’s generation), she never attended a single day of formal schooling. She married a man and had one child, but he was abusive and did not want to be the child’s father, so she took the child and left her husband and returned to live with her grandmother.
She borrows sewing supplies from a female neighbor and can sometimes earn 75-150 Quetzals (10 to 20 USD) a month by making traditional Mayan huipiles or blouses. She grows corn and beans on her small plot of land, and raises chickens and sheep to supplement her income. In 2010 a prolonged heavy rain caused the river running by her home to flood, destroying approximately 1/3 of her arable land, a loss she estimates at 10-15,000 Quetzales (1315-1975 USD) which does not include year-to-year losses as she can no longer plant on the land which the river took.
Mujerave identified Gloria as an ideal recipient of our pilot project. A greenhouse built on Gloria’s property will allow her to create income and diversify her family’s diet. Based on the success of the pilot project, Mujerave hopes to expand the greenhouse project to benefit other women like Gloria and their families. These projects contribute to Mujerave’s mission: to contribute to the alleviation of poverty and the eradication of malnutrition by empowering women through sustainable development projects in indigenous communities in the department of Totonicapán, Guatemala.
She borrows sewing supplies from a female neighbor and can sometimes earn 75-150 Quetzals (10 to 20 USD) a month by making traditional Mayan huipiles or blouses. She grows corn and beans on her small plot of land, and raises chickens and sheep to supplement her income. In 2010 a prolonged heavy rain caused the river running by her home to flood, destroying approximately 1/3 of her arable land, a loss she estimates at 10-15,000 Quetzales (1315-1975 USD) which does not include year-to-year losses as she can no longer plant on the land which the river took.
Mujerave identified Gloria as an ideal recipient of our pilot project. A greenhouse built on Gloria’s property will allow her to create income and diversify her family’s diet. Based on the success of the pilot project, Mujerave hopes to expand the greenhouse project to benefit other women like Gloria and their families. These projects contribute to Mujerave’s mission: to contribute to the alleviation of poverty and the eradication of malnutrition by empowering women through sustainable development projects in indigenous communities in the department of Totonicapán, Guatemala.