Fruits of Resilience: Alicia's Entrepreneurial Journey towards Growth, Education, and Family Success

Alicia (32) has been selling fruit and snacks in the central market of Tecpan, Guatemala for over 13 years. She has a prime corner spot with lots of foot and car traffic. She learned about VisionFund through a friend who gave her a flyer about VisionFund’s financial services.  

As a way to diversify her income, Alicia took out her first loan in 2019 and used the money to start construction on a multi-purpose building. She and her husband rent the ground floor space out for $300/month to a woman selling shoes and another space to a butcher; and are using the second floor as their home. 

She just received her second loan May 2023 and are using that loan to both continue their construction project and purchase small plots of land for each of their children.  

When asked if she ever had problems paying back her loan, she smiled and said “Never!” Her monthly profit on the fruit business is about $2,500/month and her husband also has some storage units he rents out.  

A key priority is education for her children and all of them have been going to a private school in town, which is quite expensive. She said, “I grew up very poor and didn’t have any opportunity to have an education (she can neither read nor write and does the money transactions for the fruit stand in her head). So, giving my children an education is very important to me. I want my children to be professionals so they can make more money.”  

Standing in the hot sun or rain, to sell her produce and snacks, she said that because she and her husband are young and strong, they want to keep the fruit stand going for as long as they can. She likes the interaction with her customers and would wonder how she would do to fill her time if she didn’t have the stand! 

Her husband Manuel is very proud of Alicia, “We work together well as a team, she had an idea to add fried plantains to her fruit stand business and I supported her. I am thankful to God for her and her hard work, we work so well as a team.”