Together with her twin sister Maria Paola Parra runs a beauty salon in the centre of the town of Catamayo in southern Ecuador. We visited Maria Paola on the 22 August 2012. She has made several repayments on her loan which she invested in buying equipment and products (such as gels, hair colours, etc) to sell for the salon. This is her first loan. The main challenge for her business she considers is the increasing level of competition from other beauty salons that have opened in the centre of town, although she has her regular clients. The sisters open the salon from around 1-7 pm each day and take turns attending to customers. Most of their customers are women, although occasionally men visit for haircuts. Apart from haircuts, they offer hairstyling, hair colouring (particularly popular among women), applying make-up for special occasions such as weddings and celebrations, manicures and pedicures. They charge US$2.50 for women's haircuts and US$2 for men, and up to US$24 for hair colouring. Most days daily profit is around US$15. Maria Paola is also studying part-time at University in the city of Loja - she has to attend weekend classes every couple of weeks. She is taking a course in health and beauty and eventually hopes to graduate as a teacher and work in a college. Update written by Ajaz Ahmed Khan and Fernando Rodriguez.