Julia Amarilla Orihuela

Besides weaving, she also has a despensa, a small grocery store, at her house. She started her despensa about a year ago. Julia has three children, ages 28, 22, and 20, whom help her out with her store. All of her children finished studying technology but are unemployed right now and are only working on small informal jobs.

For more than 10 years, Julia has been traveling every 15 days with her husband, and at times by herself, on a two hour bus ride to Asuncion to sell her merchandise. She has about 20 clients in Asuncion that she sells to. She does not sell to stores, but rather sells house to house directly to her customers.

She also practices a common method of payment whereby a client requests and receives the order, and they pay Julia in small amounts every 15 days when she returns to Asuncion until they finish paying off the money they owe her.

Julia and Nestor have been working with Fundacion Paraguaya for many years now. They are an excellent client and very thankful for being able to take loans out from the Foundation. They are currently seeking a loan to purchase craft thread to complete more orders and to expand their business.