Meet Amalia.

Amalia lives in a rural, Indigenous community in Guatemala, where employment opportunities are rare and many struggle to meet the basic needs of their families.

Amalia was struggling to make ends meet doing housekeeping work. Her husband, who also struggled to earn an income, continually encouraged her to start a business, recognizing that Amalia had the potential to become a great entrepreneur. Amalia, on the other hand, wasn’t so sure she had it in her.

One day, on her walk home from work, Amalia heard about CAUSE Guatemala’s microfinance program and the opportunities available to access credit and business support. Before long, Amalia decided to open a small store of her own.

In March 2020, when the world was hit by the pandemic, Amalia’s store was also greatly affected. With encouragement from the CAUSE Guatemala team and support from donors like you, Amalia was able to keep her business afloat and in time, sales started to slowly improve as people could no longer travel and needed to buy her products.

In June, Amalia’s brother-in-law decided to set up a food take out shop. He asked Amalia if she could set up a complementary product for his business and suggested a tortilla shop. Amalia and her husband decided they would need to find a larger location where the store and tortilla shop could operate together at the same time.

This year, because of your support, Amalia and her husband are running the store and the tortilla shop together, which is helping them earn enough to provide food for their family. The store and the tortilla shop have been named after their daughters, Amarilis and Angela.

Amalia is grateful to God for giving her family the opportunity to start a business and to CAUSE Canada supporters for providing a way to earn and feed her family. Now, she has a new project in mind: opening a second tortilla shop in a new location. She hopes to have your support to continue making her dreams come true.

This International Women’s Day let us celebrate the amazing women around us and support women and girls whose potential is just waiting be discovered.

Watch the below video to learn about one of CAUSE Canada’s current projects in partnership with the Fund for Innovation and Transformation supporting gender equality in West Africa.