Emelita lives rural Timor-Leste with her husband, Geraldo, and their two young children.

Emelita and Geraldo are farmers and grow ginger, taro, cassava, and red rice, to take care of their family. Emelita also runs a small kiosk from their home, selling basic household items such as coffee, sugar, and oil.

Recently, Emelita became sick and needed to buy formula to feed both her children. At the same time, her business started to struggle. The stock that she had brought to sell was not what the community wanted to buy.

She struggled to run her business and she found that the goods she had for sale were not what the community wanted to buy.

Emilita and Geraldo are both participants in ADRA’s Farmers to Marker (FarMar) project.

As part of the project, they attended business skills training and learned how to create a business plan. They were also able to join a savings and loan group with people from their community.

Through a COVID-19 response grant earlier this year, ADRA was able to supply the Savings and Loan Groups with a $500 subsidy to support food security and livelihood recovery.

Emelita and her husband submitted their business plan to the savings group and took a loan of $500 to invest in their kiosk. Emelita travelled to Dili (Timor-Leste’s capital city) with the $500, plus $300 of her own savings, to buy more goods for her kiosk. She has found that now she has more buyers because the goods she sells are based on the community’s needs.

Emelita is thankful for ADRA’s FarMar Project business training where she learned to track her expenses and profits. Now she is earning $10-$20 per day and she plans to pay back the loan within five months so that other group members can have an opportunity to take a loan.

Learn more about the FarMar project and donate to help more people like Emelita here.