Earlier this year Willian Mejia received a loan of approximately £700 from the microfinance institution Fundacion FACES in Ecuador. We visited Willian on the 1st August 2012 at his home some miles from the town of Catamayo in southern Ecuador. Willian invested the funds in purchasing fertiliser, some insecticide and seeds and has already started making repayments on the loan which is for nine months. He has in fact received several loans already and has proved an extremely reliable borrower - he has only ever been late a couple of days on one occasion. Willian is growing maize, beans, tomatoes and peppers at the moment on land that he largely rents - he pays around US$200 in rent annually for each segment of around 800 square metres of land. The advantage that he has is access to canal irrigation - without this the rainfall would be insufficient for the crops to grow. He pays a token amount for the water but has responsibility for keeping the canals clean. He also keeps one pig which he is about to slaughter in the next few days and around 40 chickens. During harvest time he goes every week to the farmers markets to sell his crops directly on a wholesale basis. For example, he receives $7 for a box of tomatoes. Buyers tend to be shops and other retailers rather than individual households. He hires a pick-up truck to transport the produce. He also sells his eggs at the markets. Willian mentioned that at the weekends he makes coconut ice lollies as well which he and his wife sell in and around the local volleyball courts for 25 cents each. Update submitted by Ajaz Ahmed Khan, Fausto Jaramillo and Fernando Rodriguez.