Azucena is a young woman from the community of Cotacachi, her family consists of her husband Ruben and her three children: Erik (2 years old), Kinary (5 years old), Jade (9 years old). All her life has been dedicated to agriculture and animal raising. Due to the situation of the country, things in the agricultural area became difficult, through the technical assistants who are visiting the families in Otavalo she knew about Pan de Vida and through them, Azucena heard about the microentrepreneurship program and decided to apply.
Pan de Vida carried out the evaluation process and Azucena’s project was approved, she received 17 guinea pigs with which she begun to work to support her family. She had enough space for her guinea pigs, however, at the beginning when she started with her enterprise her guinea pigs were on the floor, which was not very hygienic and could have consequences on the health and development of her guinea pigs. Azucena continues to improve her processes thanks to the recommendations of the technical assistants. She now has 5 cradles, where she has a total of 50 guinea pigs and continues to multiply, during this time we have seen how she has almost tripled the number of guinea pigs.
She is on her way to becoming a champion and in representation of her efforts, she now also has another enterprise with her mother-in-law, where she raises sheep, pigs and two cows, which has allowed her to improve her knowledge in animal raising and management.
Her vision is to grow her business with several animals, since doing so is her passion. Currently, she is very open to join our “Life Farms” initiative because she has a space for the gardens and is enthusiastic about the project to help other families in the community.