Elena grew up in the community of Candelon, a small village in a dry land dotted with Acacia bushes. Her house, composed of a rough wooden structure with spots of concrete, is home for her and her 17 year old son, Natanael. As a single mother, she often struggles to find ways to fix the crumbling structure structure of the home, but her community of generous neighbors has always been willing to help make repairs when damages frequently arise. Behind the house is the outhouse and an outdoor structure for cooking that is built of sticks and rusted tin sheets. Despite her living conditions, Elena wears a smile each day and has permanent disposition of wanting to help others.
One of Elena’s many talents is administering injections, despite her lack of studies in the subject. The community relies on Elena for antibiotic injections causing her to develop the motto: “day or night, no matter the hour, if I can help, I’m available.”
Some of Elena’s earliest memories are of her mother raising goats to take care of the family. After taking care of a baby goat for about a year, her mother would sell of an adult male goat to support her family for the next few weeks. Once Elena’s mother passed away, however, the land that she once raised goats on began to deteriorate, the fences broke down, the barb-wire rusted, and the goats became less profitable for the family.
After Natanael’s father left, Elena found herself with no way of supporting her and her son. She spent each day waiting to see what would show up, and wrestled with the idea of leaving her son alone at home to find a job in the city cleaning homes. Life became harder, food became scarce, and the land that once produced healthy goats was overrun by nature. Natanael also struggled to finish his education because the high school required traveling daily to the next largest town, and Elena couldn’t afford the motorcycle taxi for his transport.
When we first met Elena, we knew instantly that she has an unbreakable spirit. When we discussed with her some ideas of how she could make a living to support her family, she knew immediately what she wanted to do: raise goats. She has the land and the knowledge, but no capital to rebuild the fences, clear out the brush, build a corral, and buy a handful of goats.
According to Elena: “The goats are my way out of this.”
We were able to come alongside Elena and provide her a loan of $1,200, enough to get her up and running. Because goats take a year after birth to be sellable, we gave her an extended grace period to begin paying the loan back. Our plan and hope is that in five years, she’ll be debt free and have more than enough goats to take care of her family, and even have extra to continue helping her community as she already does.
