Julia Janampa De Mejía

Julia speaks only Quechua, the native language of the indigenous Andean people. Every week she travels 13 hours in a crowded truck into the rural zones of Peru. She then spends three days gathering cactus and other plant material to haul home in large burlap sacks. She then dries the moisture from the plants, to produce a natural pigment used to color fabric, yarn, and is even used for hair dye. Julia then sells this pigment to customers who travel 8 hours from Lima to make the purchase, which they know is of a reliable, high quality.

Julia hopes to receive a loan of $500, which she will use to purchase larger quantities of the raw material. She will also use part of the money to help her daughter, who has just started a small business drying animal hides for leather, which will be processed and sold for shoe production.

Julia belongs to a village bank called “Amauta Huamanga” where she friends in the same situation as hers, like Josefa Quispe, who is also a business woman who hopes to receive a US$ 700 loan. Both, Julia and Josefa are expecting together a total loan of US$ 1,200