A gifted seamstress, Rosa typically traveled and taught embroidery and crafts to different ladies within the villages of Tarija. Her lengthy treks carried her by means of the highlands of the Cordillera de Sama, assembly with ladies and younger ladies.
Rosa’s educating journeys left her regularly away from her household, and the earnings from educating was irregular and unreliable. To make ends meet, she helped her sister promote bread within the streets. The times started early, mixing candy dough, baking, and carrying bundles of bread to the native markets.
Nonetheless Rosa dreamed of embroidery and the bread gross sales had been by no means sufficient. Her husband’s work supplied meals and fundamental requirements, however her kids had been rising and hoped at some point to go to varsity.
“Dad and mom don’t need to inform their kids that there isn’t a cash to review, so I used to be praying to have a enterprise to earn extra money.”
By way of her church, Rosa joined a small group that met for prayer. The group additionally took classes in enterprise and studied the biblical parable of the skills.
“The educating of the 5 Skills inspired me as a result of expertise can imply not solely cash, [but] additionally the sources that we’ve got from the Lord… The vital factor just isn’t how a lot we’ve got. The vital [thing] is what we’re doing with what we’ve got.”
Rosa and her Group started to save lots of collectively, every member setting apart a number of bolivianos every week. Rosa had tried to save lots of earlier than, however she was by no means in a position to accumulate a lot. By way of her Group, nonetheless, Rosa gained entry to a rising financial savings pool and reasonably priced loans. She used her first mortgage to buy an embroidery machine.