Lucía Venancia Yac Sohom, 36, belongs to the K'iche' ethnic group in Guatemala. She lives with her three daughters and her mother Isabel in the municipality of Santa Lucía Utatlán. Like other women in the community, they raise animals, take care of the house and earn income selling traditional clothing.
When Lucia got married in 1990, she didn't expect any big changes in her life. But she soon found herself bringing up three daughters while her husband struggled to find work. Eventually, he decided to look for work in the United States, using their house and land as collateral for a loan to fund the trip. He never sent money to pay off the debt, and a year later, Lucía's house was seized, and she and her daughters moved in with her mother. Her husband called once, twice, and then never again.
"All that time I struggled for my children's sake and suffered a lot," Lucia recalls. "I would wash clothes in a far away river and work in the field. Sometimes I wouldn't eat so my children could. My mother had always been a trader, buying and selling clothing. One day she asked me to help her sell in Panajachel, a town 12 miles away. It was a successful trip. I began to work with her, but the business was hers and I didn't get much money from the sales. I wished that the profits were mine so I could give my daughters the things they needed."
Lucía says that 2000 was a special year. "I attended a meeting where CARE's Edubancomún project was being promoted. The project supported girls' education through the sixth grade and was giving small loans so mothers of schoolgirls could establish businesses and increase their income."
In June 2000 she received her first check for 1,500 quetzal, about $200. "I was scared," Lucia says. "I doubted if I could manage the money. It was the first time that I had taken a loan by myself." She invested the credit and partnered with her mother. Lucia now travels on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays to nearby towns to make her purchases and spends all day on Sunday in Panajachel, where she and her mother sell traditional wrap-around skirts and hand-embroidered blouses. Her new income has allowed her to support her daughters' education and purchase their school supplies and clothing. "I even bought them a big table," she says, "so they didn't have to do their homework on the floor."
Lucía is now the president of a group of 17 women who have taken loans through the project, and she is know in her community as a brave and hard-working woman. Everyone knows her story, and when she speaks in meetings about the importance of education people listen because they know of her experience as a single parent.
"Over time we will see the results of CARE's work," Lucia says. "Now many girls continue on to study in secondary school and their parents support them. There are fewer girls that don't pass a grade and withdraw from school. Eventually, they will be women, with better work opportunities because of school. CARE has certainly changed my family for the better. Before, the idea that my daughters would complete sixth grade was only a dream. But now the dream has become a reality: My oldest daughter, Carmen, is in the eighth grade. My daughter Sucelyn is in the sixth grade and the youngest, Yessica, is in the fourth grade. If we work hard they will all be able to graduate. This has all been achieved through CARE."
