Drocelle’s Story
When Drocelle first joined our program, she recounts feeling lonely and hopeless. After losing her beloved husband a few years prior, she felt as if she “had lost all of her dreams”. As a single mother of three children, she was working hard but earning very little through the small harvest her coffee farm was yielding, but more than anything, she felt unable to see a future worth hoping for.
Although she entered the program shy and unsure of what would come of the process, Drocelle soon realized the benefit of meeting with other farmers in her region to learn concepts that would enable her to not only improve her farm and grow her income, but also to build relationships she could lean on. One of the first trainings she attended focused on the concept of self-esteem – aimed at teaching Fellows the power of believing in themselves and their capability as well as growing their level of confidence and decision-making capacity. It was this training that Drocelle says “revived her hope” and made her start to believe that “life is still possible”.
Drocelle counts that as a turning point in her life. From there, she began growing within the program as a person, a coffee farmer, a community member, and an entrepreneur. Toward the end of the Fellowship, she was inspired by the business training she’d received to develop a plan to diversify her income. She began to work with her Business Coach to draft a plan for a sustainable microenterprise focused on pig-rearing, presented the plan, and ultimately received seed capital to get it started.
Since then, she has turned her investment into a thriving business – rearing pigs to sell in the local market while simultaneously creating a source of organic fertilizer to sell and utilize in order to increase the quality and quantity of her coffee harvest. Through improved technique and farm inputs, she has increased her coffee harvest, generating 190% more yield from the same number of coffee trees. With increased production, as well as focused effort to diversify her income through her new business, Drocelle has increased her income by 2300%.
During the Fellowship, Drocelle set a household vision focused on three goals: renovating her home, purchasing another plot of land, and supporting each of her children through secondary school. Through her growing income and increased self-belief, she has been able to achieve every single one, with her last child scheduled to graduate in the coming months.
Perhaps, most importantly, through her time with Kula, Drocelle told us that she found “a community that makes her feel less alone”, allowing her to move forward with support and hope for what’s to come.
