Gloria in Quito has opened her own B&B!

It’s so awesome to hear from our participants — and we were really happy to get an exciting update from Finding 40 participant Gloria in Quito, Ecuador: She has followed through on her dream of opening her own B&B! She emails us that “she has made her dream come true” and is running her own endeavor now! If you are traveling to Quito, please consider her property and say hi — She is a fantastic woman!

https://www.facebook.com/Goyitas-Bed-and-Breakfast-178531119176201

We chose the picturesque plaza as a photo setting, attempting to capture a bit of Erasma’s exuberant energy that mimics this bustling town. All day long I watch her at work, jumping between cleaning tasks, literally running up and down multiple flights of stairs with laundry, cleaning products and deliveries for guests. Cusco’s at 11,300 feet; I’m out of breath just watching her…

One of Erasma’s most interesting set of responses came when she was asked about what she would do with an extra $100, $1,000 or $10,000. With none of these windfalls would she spend money on something fun or personal. Instead, she would choose to use the funds to expanding her weaving business. Textiles are a huge business in Peru and handicraft stalls cram the cobblestone side streets heading in all directions from the Plaza de Armas.

With $100 she would buy supplies for the artesian co-op she currently participates in (perhaps yarns, dyes or equipment for a loom). When the number jumps to $1,000, she would like to create her own store or business for selling her wares. At $10,000 she is thinking large, and would form a small company with employees to create a variety of crafts. One of her greatest regrets is not being able to get a loan, primarily for being a female. Her pride in her weaving skill glows brightly; her face shines when she explains to me the work she does in her village of Chinchero.

Married at age 15 and now mother to seven and grandmother to one, Rosa Elena lives in a small community of 2,500 people outside the market town of Otavalo in Ecuador’s highlands. Rolling green hills are punctuated with clusters of brick and cement homes and fields of corn. This area is home to many of Ecuador’s native Kichwa (Indian) tribe, who first inhabited this area more than 2,000 years ago.

Our interview was conducted in Kichwa thanks to community leader Margot, who is fluent in English, Spanish and Kichwa. We met with Rosa Elena at her home with six of her children, her grandchild and sister-in-law who lives just next door.

Her entire universe is only about 100 square miles. She has never been beyond the village of Otavalo – “I travel there once a week on Wednesdays to visit the market.” She works making handcrafted beaded bracelets that she sells to market vendors for resale; her profit is $1 for each six bracelets made, a standard workday output for her.

Comment from me:  ”$1 for an entire day’s work?  I just spent $4 on an iced tea and small snack at Starbucks.  Could I imagine having to work for four solid days for a simple splurge?”

7 billion reasons to empower women

Editor’s note: Ted Turner is the founder and chairman of the United Nations Foundation and the founder of CNN and Turner Broadcasting. He no longer plays an active role in CNN’s operations. He also founded and is the co-chairman of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which seeks to reduce the threat of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons.

(CNN) — The world’s population has more than tripled since I was born in 1938. On Monday, our world’s population is expected to hit the milestone of 7 billion people — up from 2.5 billion in 1950 — with almost all of the growth expected to happen in the cities of less developed countries. This means that the problems the world faced when I was a child are even more urgent now for my grandchildren.

If fertility rates continue at expected levels, the world’s population is likely to reach 10.1 billion in the next 90 years. Based on conservative estimates, the number of people in the world should pass 8 billion in 2023, 9 billion by 2041 and 10 billion at some point after 2081.

Just take a moment to think about that. By 2100, we could have nearly 50% more people on this planet than we did at the beginning of the century, competing for the same food, water, space and attention.

One of the best ways to ensure that the 7 billionth child born will live in a safe, healthy and sustainable world is to focus on what women want and need. Researchers at the Guttmacher Institute found there are 215 million women worldwide who want the ability to time and space their pregnancies, but do not have access to effective methods of contraception. Women want to be able to deliver children safely and provide for them.

World’s population reaches 7 billion

According to the World Health Organization, in developing countries, pregnancy and childbirth complications are the leading cause of death among women in their reproductive years. In the developed world, one out of 4,300 women will die as a consequence of pregnancy. That number is one in 31 in sub-Saharan Africa, and a staggering one out of eight women dies giving birth in Afghanistan. The real tragedy is the fact that one-third of these deaths could be prevented if women had access to voluntary family planning.

Universal access to voluntary family planning is a cross-cutting and cost-effective solution to achieving all of the Millennium Development Goals. In addition to reducing maternal mortality, providing voluntary family planning methods and education enables young women to avoid early pregnancy, allows more girls to attend school longer, makes it possible for women to have fewer, healthier children and helps break the inter-generational cycle of poverty. Additionally, it would reduce HIV transmission, empower women to pursue income-generating activities in their communities and promote environmental sustainability.

Focusing on these needs is also a smart investment. There is no better value for the money than international family planning, which provides a higher return on investment than almost any other type of development assistance. Researchers at the Guttmacher Institute have found that providing quality reproductive health care and modern contraceptives to all women who want and need them reduces the cost of maternal and newborn care for each dollar invested, resulting in a net total savings of $1.5 billion.

Despite the low cost and many benefits of voluntary family planning, world leaders have not consistently made funding for these programs a priority. The current economic climate has forced Congress to take a long, hard look at its spending and rightly make some tough choices. However, far too often in this debate, the needs of women and children are the first items heaped onto the chopping block.

This year’s budget discussion has been no exception. Two of the most disturbing and shortsighted of the foreign aid budget cuts are those in funding for international family planning and the U.N. Population Fund. The fund is an agency focused on assisting governments in delivering quality sexual and reproductive health care — including voluntary family planning — throughout the life cycle of women across the globe who want and need it.

One of the smartest investments I ever made was my $1 billion gift to the United Nations, which led to the creation of the United Nations Foundation. The United Nations is the only institution with the international scale, reach and capacity to address today’s toughest challenges. If we want to ensure that we leave our children and grandchildren a safe and healthy world, then it is critical for world leaders to support the U.N.’s vital work on voluntary family planning and reproductive health for women across the globe.

The time is now. The investments we make today will shape the world we leave the next generation. If the United States wants to maintain its global leadership role, we must be thinking and making smart investments that will help us address both current and future responsibilities. The best way to do this is to listen to women and fund international family planning. Our future depends on it.

– stay tuned for more of Marcella’s story.