Maria Marcela Chela raises her family in the village of Caseras without her husband. Accustomed to surviving on less than a dollar a day, Maria and her children manage by farming a one-acre plot of land in the Andean highlands. The farm is on a virtual 45- degree angle. Dressed in a traditional skirt, bright blue
shawl and rubber boots, she farms with a baby strapped to her back in the cold mist using only hand tools.

Like many women in Ecuador, Maria’s husband, Segundo Arellano, left to earn additional income in Quito, the capital city, but can only afford to return to their remote village once a year.

The cost of separation is high, as Segundo earns barely enough to cover his living expenses in Quito. He also began a new family in the city, which is not uncommon when men migrate to urban areas for work. Unfortunately, many wives are put at risk for STDs when their husbands return home.

Despite obstacles in providing for her family, Maria’s crop yield has increased. World Neighbors training provided her with farming options different from the traditional methods that did not nurture the soil of her small hillside farm. Changing farming techniques was risky for Maria. If the new methods did not work, Maria would lose the food supply for herself and her family.

However, Maria’s risk proved to be successful, as new found knowledge provides her family with basic and healthy subsistence foods from her garden with enough left over to sell as cash crops. Maria also provides money and food for Segundo, and she pays for her children’s education.

Through improved farming techniques, women like Maria produce greater yields with less effort, decreasing the burden shouldered by many of these women. Future sons may not need to leave the village, as Segundo did, to earn extra income. Maria’s daughters may be able to avoid having to carry the heavy burden their mother did by being exposed to these new techniques.

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