Gregoria Arana Álvarez

Gregoria Arana Álvarez is 71 years old and has been battling to make a living for her whole life. She keeps things going with three different businesses. Every school morning she's in front of the school selling tacos and other snacks to the children. Every Saturday she makes up a mountain of tamales and sells them in the neighborhood. But she still had free time when she wasn't working, so she started selling Omnilife dietary supplements door-to-door. She is using this loan to purchase the supplements, as she has to pay for them in advance when she orders them, but only gets paid when she delivers to the customer. She can buy a box of supplements from the supplier for about US$21 and sells it for almost $28. She's been selling about 8 boxes a week. She goes door to door and knows that she has to knock on 100 doors to get 2 sales.

Gregoria is a widow who had five children, but the two oldest boys, established professionals in their careers (one was a teacher and head of a school) were both murdered within the space of two months just 4 years ago. They were helping her get her house finished, but without their support the fix-up of the house has languished, and getting it finished so that her remaining children can inherit it in good condition is one of her biggest dreams. Her worries: she's starting to have problems with her feet, and every one of her three businesses involves walking and standing all the time. It has her scared. Also, the cost of corn has just gone up, so now the corn for tamales is costing almost $20 for a 100-pound sack, which is quite a bit higher than it was until recently.

Here you can watch a video of a payment meeting with Gregoria's women's group, the Mujeres "Shaddai".

Written by Nancy Lewis and Randy Fay, Kiva Fellows.

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