Nara Mozombite Reategui

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Nara Mozombite Reategui by Manuela Ramos / CrediMUJER in Peru. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 5 months, Manuela Ramos / CrediMUJER will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Last week I visited Nara at home to talk about how her business ventures are doing. Nara lives in a wooden house built on short stilts to protect the home from flooding during the rainy season. Nara has a business selling cooked food from the front porch of her home in the evenings, beginning around 6:30. Nara sells typical local dishes such as juanes (balls of rice wrapped in a leaf), fried rice, grilled chicken and fish, and plantains prepared in a variety of ways. She has many regular customers and told me that her business is going pretty well. Nara also has fields of maize, beans, chiclayo and yuca near her home. In her yard she grows tomatoes and sugar cane and also keeps three pigs.

Nara is married and had a total of 11 children, one of whom has passed away. She lives together with her husband, her youngest son (aged 21) and a grandson, the child of one of her daughters. Nara and her family have encountered some difficulties lately—Nara’s husband’s health is poor due to diabetes. He has been ill lately and cannot help her in the fields as much as he used to do.

Nara has been working with Kiva partner Manuela Ramos for seven years. She has always been punctual in her loan payments. Nara has had her food sales business since before beginning to take out loans from Manuela Ramos. She is currently paying back another loan of 1200 soles (about $400), which she used for a number of different purposes. Some of the funds went to pay for her husband’s health expenses. Some of it went to helping Nara take care of her fields. Finally, a portion of it covered a monthly payment for a motorcycle taxi that Nara purchased a year ago. Nara had purchased this vehicle for her 21-year-old son, so he could have employment as a taxi driver. Unfortunately, her son was held up and the vehicle was stolen only four days after Nara had purchased it. Though Nara went to the police, they have not been able to recover the vehicle. Nara has been left to pay off her debt to the store though she no longer has the vehicle. Fortunately, Nara receives some additional financial assistance from one of her eldest sons who works in a company. He sends her money regularly. Nara’s youngest son, the one for whom she bought the motorcycle taxi, now works in soldering at a boat-building business.

In this short video clip, Nara is beginning the preparation of the food she will sell later. Nara told me that her goal is to ensure that nothing is lacking in her household. She is also working in order to be able to help her youngest son. Finally, for Nara, whatever she has is for sharing with her family.

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