Life story Ana Lucia Bermudez
PROJECT VA0011
Contribution to comprehensive care and income generation for 150 families displaced from the urban area of the municipality of Cali.
Description:
Ana Lucia is a 33-year-old woman, she has 2 children and together with her husband they work hard in their businesses, since their hardware store helped them to consolidate their business selling food in the morning hours, together with their children they have advanced in his family, in his house he has managed to improve it.
Her business has allowed her not only to consolidate another one but also to help another woman to get a job and to be able to improve the situation of her family. She is an enterprising, dynamic woman, community leader, leader of her Christian community, collaborative, creative, and friendly. She is known in the neighborhood by the children, youth, and adults who see her selling in their businesses every day.
I come from Tumaco, I did not register as displaced but they relocated me as vulnerable. When I arrived in Cali, like many as a domestic employee and at that time I endured the humiliation and everything that came my way, because I came from another place and I only had my sister. I started working on various things so that I could progress. Well, the situation in Tumaco was very violent and that made me desperate because I saw people being killed every day and I believe in God and that's why I left there to save myself. I remember that when we lived there my mother lived with my stepfather and he treated us very badly so my mother decided to stay there with him and we decided to come to Cali to start over.
I live with my children, my husband, my mother stayed in Tumaco as I told her, my sister lives well here in Cali after so much suffering and so many jobs. I remember that after we decided to live together, my husband and I joined the invasion of La Paz, that's where we started the family, we didn't live very well with our children because we had many needs, but we did what we could there, we have never stayed to wait for what comes to us, we have always worked. When we lived in La Paz, I sold frozen chickens and eggs and from there my husband got a job and then they brought up the idea of the hardware store and we began to make progress with that business when they relocated us to Potrero. In addition, with my food business I help the Church and the women of the community who want to get ahead and who want to help their families and we help each other.
I am grateful to the OIM, FOMIPYME and COMFENALCO, I was able to strengthen my business, when the hardware store became stronger little by little, it allowed me to increase my food business and both things are holding up very well, people know me, buy from me and In the neighborhood there are very few hardware stores, so the business that we have every day sells, God helps us and through the project we supply more, we opened a branch at the beginning and gave work to other people but we saw that more was coming in Potrero like this that we decided to move everything here and we managed to improve. In addition, when the bank saw all the assortment and assembly that we had thanks to the project, it gave us a loan of one million pesos and with that we were able to consolidate ourselves better, with what the project gave us we obtained the loan and also allowed us to accredit ourselves and we can do large orders and pay in installments, so we always have an assortment and what people need at good prices.