Growing Plants, Growing Businesses, and Growing Self-Esteem

By Edelia Aracelly Cruz Torrez, Empowering Women Project Officer

Heydi is grateful for the opportunity that Self-Help International’s Women’s Empowerment Program has given her. With training, technical assistance, and financing, she can strengthen her small business selling fruit trees, as well as ornamental and medicinal plants, which are generating profits to help pay for household improvements and for the education of her children.

Heydi is 35 years old, married, and the mother of two children. The oldest is 15 years old and the youngest is 11 years old. She completed her high school studies, but a lack of money meant she could not finish university.

She is originally from Muelle de los Bueyes, which is in the Autonomous Region of the South Caribbean Coast of Nicaragua, but she moved to the San Carlos in the Rio San Juan region when she married her husband, who was offered a good job there. They now live in the community of Laurel Galán, which is located 1.7 kilometers (a little more than a mile) from Self-Help International’s Central Office in San Carlos, Nicaragua.

Heydi and her husband had to make many sacrifices so they could buy a small piece of land and, as time went by, they managed to build a small house that was lined with old plastic and zinc sheet metal panels that friends gave them. 

Their financial situation worsened when Heydi’s husband lost his job. To earn a living, Heydi started working for a lady who had a beautiful garden. “Because I have always liked gardens,” Heydi said, “I kept it well cared for and the lady was delighted with my work, so I came up with an idea for a nursery business that I could have at my own home.”

Heydi’s husband supported her dream to start a nursery business, but a loan request that they made to a private credit agency was denied because they did not meet the necessary requirements. A friend helped them as much as she could, so they were able to start buying medicinal and ornamental plants and raised the offspring of the plants for sale. “After months of a lot of hard work, we were seeing good results,” Heydi related, “and we had plenty of desire to get ahead. We used zinc panels that were given to us to provide a roof over the plants, and we filled recycled jars, juice cans, milk, beer, and soda bottles for watering. We filled black bags with soil for planting. The children, my husband, and I worked daily to make sure the plants were well protected. With the financial support of my husband, we managed to buy a used motor scooter to be able to deliver plants to the homes of our customers.”

All that hard work was paying off for Heydi’s nursery business until a rainstorm hit and many of the plants drowned. “We suffered a great loss,” Heydi recalled, “and I shared with a colleague what had happened to me. She told me that there was an organization nearby called Self–Help International and that the organization supported working women like me. At that time, I did not take much interest in applying for assistance from Self-Help because I had unsuccessfully applied for a loan with a finance company and I did not believe that I could qualify for a loan from Self-Help, either.”

However, Heydi’s attitude changed when she had a chance meeting with Rodolfo Hernandez, Self-Help’s agricultural program officer. Hernandez explained how Self-Help functions as an organization and passed along Heydi’s information to Aracelly Cruz, program officer for Self-Help’s Women’s Empowerment Program. When Cruz visited Heydi’s house, she explained the Women’s Empowerment Program to her and Heydi realized that Self-Help listens to the people who need its support the most, just as she needed it. “After Aracelly explained to me everything that the Women’s Empowerment Program promoted, I confirmed that I wanted to be part of the program, and I began to attend the training sessions,” Heydi said.

At one of the training sessions, Heydi was given seeds of INTA–Nutrader corn (aka Quality Protein Maize), which she planted using the double furrow technique she had been taught by Self-Help’s agricultural technicians. “It went very well because I was able to save some of the corn seeds that I shared with other people so that they can benefit as I have from the knowledge and skills that Self-Help taught me and other women,” Heydi noted. “Those women who have benefited from working with Self-Help have shared their own experiences with me and have served as an example for me to follow so I can persist with my desire to excel.”

As the months passed, Heydi completed all of the training required by the Women’s Empowerment Program to obtain financing. Completing the training program is the only requirement that Self-Help asks of the women in its program, Heydi explained. “After I finished the training, I immediately made my first request for a loan in the amount of C$ 6,000 córdobas ($160). “Three weeks after making the application, I received a call confirming that my first loan was approved by the Credit Committee of the organization,” Heydi recalled. “I was super excited because with that loan I intended to buy planters of various sizes and different styles, decorative stones, and the ingredients I needed to make organic fertilizer. When I received the cash, everything went as planned. I managed to attract more customers because the plants looked elegant and more stylish. From the profits from the sales of my plants I managed to pay back the monthly loan installments and I had enough money after paying off the loan that I was able to help pay for my children’s education and make some improvements to our house.”

After Heydi paid off her first loan, she applied for a second loan of C$15,000 córdobas ($400). After it was approved by the Credit Committee, Heydi reinvested in her business and made more improvements to her house.

She is currently paying off her third loan, which she has used to buy more varieties of medicinal and ornamental plants, fruit trees, and materials to protect the plants from insects. “All this I have achieved thanks to the support that Self-Help International has given me to get ahead. I hope Self-Help will continue supporting me to achieve my goal of expanding my business more so that, one day, we will be able to build a better house. In a short time, I have achieved many things, and I will soon be able to fulfill my dreams with the efforts of my husband and children and the support of Self-Help International.”

Heydi has become an enthusiastic booster of Self-Help, based on what the organization has done for her and other women she knows. “I hope this program never ends and that it reaches all of the women who need a boost to move their business forward and change their way of thinking,” Heydi said. “Self-Help International also cares about women’s health. I have participated in two medical fairs that have helped me a lot. Self-Help helps us emotionally by providing us with training sessions that make us see a future full of success.”

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