WCCN’s Microfinance Portfolio Borrower Profile: Sonia Floriselda Argueta

Sonia Floriselda Argueta. Photo by Carlos Arenas.

Sonia Floriselda Argueta, a borrower of Padecomsm Credit in El Salvador, has a recipe for success. With a ninth grade education, Sonia learned how to make tortillas from watching her mother, and began working in restaurants. She then started a bakery of her own with a wood fire clay oven. In 2004 she took her first loan to buy ingredients for her bakery. She then used the profits to expand the bakery. With another loan she was able to replace her smoky and dangerous wood fired oven with a propane powered oven, and a third to purchase a table. At first there were a total of three women, including herself, selling her bread in baskets in the market. Now five women are selling and two work in the bakery. She was initially producing 12 trays a day, and now 20 to 30 trays is the average.

Despite the demands of running a busy bakery, Sonia manages to devote some time next door at the office of Padecomsm NGO, earning a small salary as an administrative assistant. She energetically shares her philosophy on the importance of working hard, snapping her fingers for emphasis. She says others have asked her why she doesn’t just go to other countries? She responds that you can survive and flourish if you work hard.

This attitude she impresses upon her two daughters, ages 11 and 13. They are both attending school where they do well and never fail a class. They want to earn bachelor degrees and become professionals. By working so hard now, Sonia believes that she will see her children get ahead. She inches closer to inform us that she can live off her bakery business and uses the income from her part time job to save for her daughters’ higher education. Once again she reminds us that she started with nothing and hard work and financial resources have been her recipe for success.

By Emily Allred, WCCN Loan Fund Manager