Liliana Stefania

Liliana Cujilema is from the small town of Pasaje in southwestern Ecuador. Her husband works as a full-time labourer at a local banana plantation. They have a son who is 7. Due to the ongoing health pandemic he has online classes.

Liliana is self-employed. She has a business selling cosmetics items such as perfumes, deodorants, creams, shampoos, and makeup. Additionally, she sells some clothing and household items. She keeps the items at home and makes sales and deliveries to her customers each day. Liliana actually started the business around 11 years ago when she was just 18 and still studying part-time. She studied on the Sundays and the other six days worked in a boutique. However, the business were she worked went bankrupt and closed. She then dedicated herself full-time to her business. She needed the additional income to help her partner meet the costs of the household expenditure. When Liliana started, she had only about 4 or 5 customers who were her neighbours. The number of customers has increased and it now includes friends and family and she has around $350 worth of stock. She makes a profit of around $365 on average. Liliana requested a loan to buy additional stock to sell. She expects to repay the loan over 6 monthly instalments. If you are lending, please be aware that due to the current COVID-19 pandemic your repayments could be at greater risk of delay or default.