Tough, and tougher still - Roxana: a day in the life of a committed Bolivian woman

María Roxana Vaca in her bakery - a woman with
inifinite strength. © KoppThe 11th of October is Women's Day in Bolivia. "Organización 11 de Octubre" is also the name of María Roxana Vaca's women's group. Together with the group, she has organised the production and sale of liqueur and jam. The fruits grow on the parcels of land that the women work jointly with their husbands in the lowlands of Bolivia in the area around San Ignacio de Velasco.

Everything scheduled to the minute

But it's not just this women's group that Roxana has set up. She is the founder of a women bakers group. She stirred 21 women into action to increase their family income. Of these 21 women seven are now left, and from six o'clock onwards every evening they work with her preparing the dough for loaves of bread made from rice flour, and for filled pastries. By nine o'clock everything is finished and can be left overnight. Then, at four o'clock the next morning already the clay oven is lit with firewood, at five o'clock the trays are shoved in, and at eight o'clock everything is fully baked. Before that however, Roxana will quickly see to her children and send them to school at half past seven.

Roxana kneats the pastry
dough © KoppHer children - there are six of them aged from three to fourteen. Four boys and two girls - and she's mighty proud of her children. Roxana is very careful to make sure that she doesn't over-burden her children. Although they help out everywhere, the younger children under ten years old are not allowed to carry any heavy loads. That’s very important to her: "But that's no reason why they can't see to the rubbish or do the washing up", she concedes with a smile. Roxana has things unbelievably well sorted out. The whole course of the day is organised. And all the activities this woman carries out and coordinates are almost enough to make you dizzy.

Roxana with plates full of fresh
pastries. © KoppNo lawyer, but a proud initiator

She comes from a very simple indigenous family. She married early and became a mother at the age of 18. That meant she quickly had to give up her dream of one day becoming a lawyer. It would probably have been difficult for her anyway in the end because she was only able to go to school for four years. But Roxana is not a woman who gives up. Together with one of her children she has gone back to school and got her leaving certificate. She has attended courses run by Fundación Tierra, a partner organisation sponsored by Welthungerhilfe, in which she has gained leadership skills.

She has already enrolled at the San Ignacio de Velasco University and wants to study. Roxana is now 33 years old. "By 40 I actually wanted to be a qualified lawyer", that's how as a young girl she had once imagined her future. She wanted to fight for women and the rights of disadvantaged people. And she's actually doing that now as well. With her women bakers group she has created a source of income for herself and the women who work alongside her. Now they can provide for their families much more securely. Because the money the husbands earn is not enough by a long way.

Roxana works hard for a better
future for herself and her
children. © Kopp  Enough energy for two - at least

Roxana is on the go from dawn to dusk. She never gives herself a break and is always having new ideas about what else she could do. It's enough to make you dizzy, all the things she gets involved with, from the women's groups, to her children, running the household, and much more besides. But with all this energy she gets an unbelievable amount done. She has motivated women in her community to take responsibility for their lives. Now the women bakers have a baking room with a sales area. There are plenty of customers. The women who produce the liqueur and jam now explain to other small-scale farmers that fruit that has fallen from the trees can still be used. Their children all get a school education. Roxana wants them to be able to realise their dreams one day. She works hard to achieve this. "I haven't become a lawyer, but who knows what is still possible", says a woman who is in the middle of her life, but only just embarking upon all her ideas.