Roxana, mother of Adriano, a child in our Chiclayo site in Peru, isn’t afraid of stereotypes. In her community, women don’t become motorcycle mechanics, but Roxana did.
Every day, she goes to work with pride, knowing that she is now able to provide for her two-year-old son. Adriano stays with Roxana’s mother while she’s tuning up the bikes.
Becoming an Entrepreneur
“When Adriano was born, Roxana decided to become an entrepreneur,” says the Chiclayo site staff. She started the motorcycle repair shop near her home. Her brother has been a big support as she’s gotten the business off the ground.
Thanks to Adriano’s Chalice sponsor, Roxana was able to start investing in supplies. When she joined her Chalice family circle, dubbed “Mujeres Portadoras de Luz” or Women Lightbearers, she added her new friends to her support network.
“I have always liked to support my friends and family in construction [as a] bricklayer or mechanic,” Roxana says, or “painting their houses, fixing their roofs, or changing tires.”
She has always been able to figure out how to build things herself. So, “I decided that I was going to build my own little adobe house and so I did.”
Housing repair project in Peru
In 2022, the Chiclayo site launched a project to repair and fortify twelve houses that were vulnerable to collapsing. Roxana was one of the twelve
“With God’s blessing and through Chalice, I received support from the ‘Housing Repair Project’ to improve my little roof,” says Roxana.
The site hired engineers and masons, but “of course I also helped,” she says. “Happily during these last rains, my family and I could be safe.”
She thanks Adriano’s sponsor, and all Chalice sponsors “for the solidarity they have for the families including mine.”
The Chiclayo site staff see that Roxana is a role model for other mothers, especially those “who are sometimes afraid to start new businesses,” they say.
Roxana was able to provide her family with dignified living conditions and her testimony is an inspiration of empowerment and leadership for other mothers around the community. You too can support a child and their family, and help lift them out of poverty, by becoming a Chalice sponsor today.
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