Learning to Meet Our Needs
Lourdes Padilla Saucedo receiving her industrial oven for her effort
Improving the skills and opportunities for income generation and access to employment for urban low-income families

In Cobija, a city with a high growth rate and a reduced level of entrepreneurship , we find Doña Lourdes, who lives in this city with her 11 children and grandchildren. She emigrated from Yacuiba with the hope of better opportunities to be able to feed her family. She worked in la elaboración de losetas for a while, but due to the arduous work that kept her from being able to attend to her young children, she needed to take on less taxing work with better pay.

One of Doña Lourdes¡¦ greatest wishes was to get an industrial oven to be able to increase her production; with the support of the Border Cities project, she was trained in cooking and baking, acquiring skills that led her to overcome her situation, becoming a baking professor for 4 months. por la renumeración y with her savings she was able to purchase her own industrial oven. Currently she has a small baking business with her daughters. In addition to having complimented her knowledge in business management, she looks to formalize her business and will likely take on part of the school breakfast.

The Border Cities program has been implemented by CARE International in Bolivia in alliance with local organizations under the financing of the European Commission and CARE International - United Kingdom. The central purpose of the project has been to contribute to the reduction of poverty by taking advantage of opportunities present in the environment, through a process coordinated between private economic actors, local governments, and civil society for the generation of employment and sustainable incomes. In this way the project would benefit low-income families resident to the urban areas of the border cities, with the priority on the participation of women and youth linked to economic activities.

One of the beneficiaries of this initiative was Doña Lourdes, who proudly says, ¡§I thank God for the blessing of finding people who help me overcome my problems and help other people like the Border Cities project did, and that with everything I learned I can support my family with food and education for their growth and so that they can have a better future.¡¨ 		  With the Border Cities Project, Lourdes Padilla has been able to improve her living conditions:

„X She is a baking professor, sharing her acquired skills with other women.
„X She has her own baking business and with her new oven produces more products for sale. 		 
  Doña Lourdes, thanks to the teachings and trainings she received through the Project and principally to her own perseverance, has come to constitute a small business entrepreneur and an example for other women immigrants.  
 
 
 
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