MiCrédito client Carmelo Silva has seen his fair share of hardship. Last year, his crops fared poorly after the rainy season brought on serious floods. Despite worrying over how he would pay back his loan, somehow the money came together. Carmelo now has another loan which he used to buy two bulls. His farm now consists of almost 12 acres of land, both rented and owned, and six cattle, which provide milk for his family.
Carmelo said MiCrédito has helped him: It allows him to work the land and it helps him take care of his family. When it comes to his family especially, every little ounce of Carmelo’s limited success counts. Carmelo has two children, a son, 12, and a daughter, 8, who has been confined to a wheelchair since birth. While Carmelo’s loans are helping the family move slowly up out of extreme hardship, they still do not earn enough to afford a proper wheelchair for Rebeca. Until recently, she had been using only what they could make – a plastic chair tied to an old frame with wheels.
After a visit to the farm, Hugo, Carmelo’s loan officer, asked if there were any contacts back in Canada who would be interested in sponsoring a wheelchair for the family. The cost was thought to be somewhere between $100 and $150 USD. So little would make the difference for this family, yet it was still out of their reach.
Thanks to the suggestion of an interested loan officer and a few helping hands in Managua, it turns out that a wheelchair was not so out of reach after all. In fact, MEDA Nicaragua staff members were able to get Rebeca a wheelchair free of cost from a fellow Mennonite group in Managua, Christian Aid Ministries. When the new wheelchair showed up a few weeks later the family was surprised and thrilled. Their faces beamed as they transferred Rebeca to her new station. Carmelo and his wife didn’t need to say ‘thank you,’ although they certainly did; the gratitude and contagious joy was written all over their faces.
