Nancy del Carmen

Nancy Castro is 46 and lives on the outskirts of the city of Loja in southern Ecuador. Her husband has a dump truck and works transporting stone material. They have three children two of whom are already married and live independently while the youngest is still studying.

Doña Nancy works selling Tuppaware products. She advertises and delivers them at a large market near her home to retailers and also directly to her customers’ homes. Previously, she also sold cosmetics products but sales were not good and clients sometimes defaulted on their payments as well so she focused on Tupperware instead. She thinks that her business has grown in part because of her warmth and good disposition. With her savings she has been able to buy and keep some products for display so that customers can see the items beforehand. Doña Nancy offers customers the opportunity to pay in installments also. She makes a profit of around $370 per month on average. She requested a loan to buy extra stock to sell as December is a good month for sales. She expects to repay the loan over 18 monthly installments.