Diana C\u00e9spedes is one of thousands of entrepreneurs in this country who grows guineo, the typical Dominican banana, and exports her entire production from her eight hectares of land to the European Union. She is one of the leading women in her community. She is Chair of the women\u2019s association and one of five women in \u2018Los Tainos\u2019 Organic Banana Producers Cooperative (COOPPROBATA) which represents around 250 producers.<\/p>\n
She works with her husband and the expansi\u00f3n of her business has enabled her to take on a further three family family members, with whom she harvests about 20 boxes of guineo every week, which she sells for around USD 10 each. \u201cThey told me that Banco Adopem was the bank for poor people. I rang on their door and they asked me what I needed. They came to my house, saw my plot of land and gave me a loan. I wanted the money to improve as a producer\u201d, she explains, as she winds her way through the banana trees.<\/p>\n
Diana thinks of herself as a working woman, flexible and enthusiastic. Someone who is not weighed down by the difficulties of life and who makes an effort to get on with things. When she remembers how she started, she feels satisfied with everything she has achieved: two of her children are going to start studying at university and the little one is studying at school.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\t\t