{"id":9451,"date":"2017-04-27T08:15:57","date_gmt":"2017-04-27T08:15:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fundacionmicrofinanzasbbva.org\/en\/terremotos-tsunamis-podido-maria\/"},"modified":"2019-12-04T13:15:46","modified_gmt":"2019-12-04T12:15:46","slug":"terremotos-tsunamis-podido-maria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fundacionmicrofinanzasbbva.org\/en\/terremotos-tsunamis-podido-maria\/","title":{"rendered":"Neither earthquakes nor tsunamis can hold Mar\u00eda back"},"content":{"rendered":"

In less than five minutes Mar\u00eda Carrasco lost the investment which had cost her years of effort.<\/strong> On two occasions, Nature has snatched away her dreams. First an earthquake and after that a tsunami which destroyed her business and most of her home.<\/p>\n

This entrepreneur was a cook in a restaurant for many years. At that time she dreamed of having her own food outlet one day. With huge effort she achieved this, until mother nature turned against her. \u201cEverything was going well, until that day, February 27. We lost everything<\/strong>: all the machinery and part of our home\u201d, she recalls. On top of this calamity her husband lost his job as a fisherman. \u201cWe were in a really tight spot. With two daughters at university, we had to start again,<\/strong> whatever it took, even if it was from the bottom. In December of that year I was invited into Fondo Esperanza and I didn\u2019t think twice\u201d, she tells us.<\/p>\n

\"Maria

Mar\u00eda is an entrepreneur thanks to\u00a0the support of Fondo Esperanza<\/p><\/div>\n

Thanks to the micro-credits, she managed to restart the sale of pies. \u201cWhen it happened, we were helped by family members and friends, but we needed capital to buy goods and to get going again, this time as a family project. We really made a commitment to the business and after a while we couldn\u2019t keep up with demand, so we reopened our premises again\u201d, says Mar\u00eda proudly. Now she has turned her passion for cooking into a family microenterprise, with a definite purpose: to pay for her daughters\u2019 university education.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Maria has not stopped dreaming. Her next challenge: to open her own restaurant.<\/strong> And her vision of her future with Fondo Esperanza is to carry on with her business.\u00a0 \u201cI recommend that anyone who wants to sign up with Fondo Esperanza should do it, they will receive support, and they can make their dreams come true. It can be done\u201d, she ends.<\/p>\n