We visited Eufenia Maza on the 13 August 2012 at her home in the barrio of San Francisco Alto which is some five kilometres from the town of Malacatos in southern Ecuador. She received a loan earlier this year from the microfinance institution Fundacion FACES, where she has been a client for around 20 years. She has made several on time repayments. Because of her good repayment record, she qualified for quite a large loan. Part of her loan investment has gone well, part of it not so well. Three of the piglets she had brought and raised died unfortunately due of an illness they contracted because of the unexpectedly cold weather and rain earlier this year. However, her other activities including raising and selling chickens have gone well. She has 40 chickens at the moment and the larger ones weigh around 5-6 pounds. She needs to keep the younger ones housed under protective shelter until they are older and can roam outside. She sells the chickens regularly at the Sunday farmers markets in Malacatos - she hires a pick up truck which charges US$10 to take her produce to market. She is also selling beans and alfalfa at the moment. Eufemia has around two hectares of irrigated land and around nine hectares with no access to irrigation where she usually plants maize. At other times she plants tomatoes and peppers. Dona Eufenia has a disabled daughter who is deaf and dumb and was able to access a special credit line from Fundacion FACES for families with disabled members. Her daughter is inseparable form her mother and even accompanies her to the markets. Another daughter who is a single mother and has three children lives with Dona Eufenia also. Dona Eufenia has recovered well from an operation she had two years to remove a tumor (larger than a tennis ball) from the left side of her neck - it had been growing and getting larger for some 16 years. Update from Ajaz Ahmed Khan, Fernando Rodriguez and Flor Maria.