Melida is a very hard-working woman whose first business, that she began 15 years ago, was making corn tortillas. She learned the technique of making them from her parents, with her seasoning and that special touch that made them unique and delicious in their locality. She learned about VisionFund from a neighbor and received her first loan of $192 to grow her tortilla business.

As a woman who wanted to work hard and do more, she was determined to learn the art of crafting wood into home ornaments, tables, chairs, and more. She learned to craft many things and had a vivid imagination. Her father passed away during this time, and being her greatest inspiration, it was a very strong blow in her life, and she fell into a little depression. Her husband however helps her through this difficult period in her life.

With the help from loans from VisionFund she started a new business of woodwork, and although she would miss making her delicious corn tortillas, she knew that this opportunity for growth would help her grow and allow her to offer a bright future for her daughters.

With every loan, she improved her new business, purchasing machines, opening her own story, and growing her product range from ornaments, to chairs, beds, and other furniture.

She is known as Doña Meli artistic hands, with talent not only in the culinary art, but also in the art of creating furniture.

She is also grateful to VisionFund for training her through financial education courses that have helped her inculcate a better savings culture and know how to manage the resources of her business.

As a woman entrepreneur with many goals to reach, she wants to expand her business to be able to offer more jobs. Currently her business provides work to her neighbors. She is grateful to God and the institution for having provided her with so much confidence, she is also grateful and feels proud of the entrepreneurial spirit that has infected her, and to her daughters as they have become a source of support in her small business.

Melida, her daughters and her workers have been promoting as a daily practice the culture of saving. She says with emotion that she prays for her family and for the progress of our institution.

 

Written by Juan Gabriel Freire Martinez, VisionFund Ecuador