The province of Imbabura has many indigenous communities, some near the main cities and others further away, Pan de Vida works with more than 20 indigenous communities throughout the area, however, there are many more that we want to reach, thanks to some contacts through some churches and their pastors, in this quarter we had the opportunity to reach the community of Pijal.
Lucila Fonte is an indigenous woman from the community of Pijal. She is 53 years old and lives with her husband, children, grandchildren and mother. She and her family have dedicated their entire lives to agriculture. Due to the fact that her community is a little farther away from the main city it is more difficult to reach certain resources or a conventional job, however due to the churches and the joint work we have with them we made a connection with several families in these communities. Lucila applied to have her basic life farm and began her journey to be part of a beautiful community, along with our technical assistants and the group of entrepreneurs and other applicants for the life farms began to work and help implement the farms in various communities. Eventually, she had her life farm in August of this year, over time her farm began to grow and with this, she began to harvest and consume produce from it. In a recent conversation we had with her she told us that thanks to the life farm she has vegetables for every meal in her home, now she eats healthier, and her family is eating better. As well as when she has the opportunity, she takes her vegetables and shares them with her neighbors so that they have something to eat as well.
Unfortunately, Lucila tells us that her church disappeared, so she is very discouraged because for her it was a safe place and she used to attend regularly, today she praises God from her home, and it is in our planning with the community development area to go to her home and implement the devotionals with her family.
