Josefina, the dream weaver

Josefina is an indigenous Wayuu, from a village in La Guajira region, in western Colombia. Thanks to Bancamía, today she is a true entrepreneur. Every day she weaves traditional chinchorros, or hammocks, by hand, like other women in the region. Each piece is unique, the result of laborious effort that can take anything between two and six months to finish.

Her daughter, already a client of the institution, encouraged her to take the step. “They helped me with my business, and now I can weave more chinchorros, make more rucksacks and help my children get their education”, she explains.

“My greatest dream is to make improvements to my house and give my children a better education”

This entrepreneur works in the open air because the materials cannot be stored in her wooden house. Her children and her business are the focus of her plans for the future: “My greatest dream is to make improvements to my house so that I can keep my work materials dry, away from the rain, and give my children a better education so that they can go to university, that is why I work”, she continues. Josefina also helps other indigenous women in her community. “I found the money to increase my sales and now I am looking for more craftswomen of Wayuu ethnicity, I buy the threads so that they can work and I pay them for the rucksacks and chinchorros they weave for me. I couldn’t do that before”, she says.

Bancamía started operating in this area in 2007 with a relationship banking model, a bank made to measure for each client. Its employees speak Wayuunaiki, Josefina’s language, and many of them belong to this community, which means that they can form closer relationships with the entrepreneurs.

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