Informal Economy Support Facility

Name: Fanny Delgado

Project sector: social rights

Implementing partner: ProgettoMondo Mlal

Location: Lamas, Tarapoto – Peru

Project: link

Fanny Delgado, 34 years old, is a beneficiary of the project “Café Correcto” run by ProgettoMondo Mlal together with six Peruvian and Bolivian partners in four different regions of the South American Countries. Fanny’s father is a doctor and she used to work as his secretary until 2007; when she got married she began to cultivate coffee with her husband and his two brothers, she works full time and rarely has a day off. Being the only one able to deal with administrative issues, she works both in the field and in the office.

Staff of “Café Correcto” explained Fanny that by being part of a cooperative she could have largely improved her production and commercial capacities; from that moment on she is part of a cooperative called Oroverde, which gives her useful and beneficial training. Moreover, being part of a cooperative allows her to be in contact with other coffee farmers, share knowledge and best practice.

Fanny loves her job, she produces a high quality coffee, which will soon be ready to be exported. However, sales prices are always low and she does not manage to cover the production costs; most of the time what she cannot cover is the value of her job, the many hours she spends cultivating in the field. In 2015, the offseason rains delayed the maturation of the coffee beans and the production did not reach the estimated quantities; the corrective measures implemented to solve the problem made the production costs exceeding the sales price.

The house where she lives in is quite small, she shares it with her husband and his family; her dream is to save enough money to move to a better place where she can stay with her husband and start a family. “If we do not find a way to earn more, my dream will never come true”, she said.

Access to the health system has many limitations in Peru and informal self-employed workers are those who face major problems; Fanny is not enrolled in any health insurance system because she does not have the necessary documents and in any event the closest health centre is many kilometres away from where she lives. That is why she cannot nurse her backache. One of the project’s goals is to make a suitable health system available to the coffee producers; in this way Fanny could have access to the therapies she needs.

“Café Correcto” will help Fanny not only to give value to the coffee she produces but also and above all to her work, allowing her to face a better future.