Agros Blog

“My dream?  To give my children the education I never had.”  I’m sitting with Petronila, a sturdy woman with a tender but determined posture in the Agros community “Trapichitos” in the highlands of Quiché, Guatemala.  As she tells me about her life before Agros, the war and suffering in her country, she recalls how hard life was. “We suffered. There were no houses. No land to work or produce.” In addition to the physical suffering, being an indigenous woman kept her from learning to how to read or write, resulting in years of shameful discrimination — a legacy that she is now committed to preventing in the lives of her four young daughters.

Around the side of Petronila’s home is a raised compost bin where hundreds of little worms break down organic matter, like kitchen scraps and yard waste, into rich compost that she can apply to her crops. “My motivation for all of my projects is my children. I don’t want them to have to suffer like my husband Cristobal and I did.  Every project we do is so they can continue going to school.“  She proudly opens the lid of her bin and shows us the rich, dark compost that symbolizes life for her entire family.  Compost that not only nourishes her crops, but her family’s needs for nutritious food, bountiful crops that provide income, and a full education for their children.

Petronila isn’t the only one who values education.  Petronila, who has participated in the women’s Agros Community Bank for the last eight years to support her projects in chickens, textiles, vegetables and coffee, has instilled enterprising spirits and a vision for the future in each of her young daughters as well.  When I ask one of the girls her name, she takes my notebook to not only tell me her name, but show me how to write it.  “J-A-C-I-N-T-A,” she spells deliberately and proudly.  Petronila is gleaming.  I ask each child what they would like to be when they grow up. “A nurse!” Jacinta quickly responds. “I want to cure all the sick people in my community.“  It’s obvious that this little girl not only has a vision, but a strong purpose at a young age.

Our time is wrapping up, but there’s more Petronila wants to tell us. As we walk away from the worm bin, she cuts me a gift of sugar cane for the road and shares, “Our life is different than it was before. We are seeing changes in our daily lives because of Agros. I am very happy with Agros’ work in Trapichitos since there’s a beginning and an end to their time with us, we know that we are the ones directing the projects that bring us life.”

And it’s true, in a few months Petronila will begin selling the worms given to her by Agros to other families, passing on the rich compost that the worms provide as well as the blessing of training that she has received from Agros. Petronila will use all of this to positively impact yet another family’s journey towards land, hope, and life.