Juana María
Chavarría
Centeno
Chavarría
Centeno
A 56-year-old woman
from Jinotega,
Nicaragua, Juana
María has lived a life
marked by struggle
and sacrifice.
As a mother of seven, Juana worked tirelessly on farms for over 30 years to support her family,
facing harsh working conditions and extreme poverty.
Yet, she embodies resilience and perseverance, proving that even in the midst of adversity, it is
possible to keep a heart full of hope.
Since the age of 18, Juana had to seek work on farms, taking on various tasks such as preparing
meals for workers, milking up to 29 cows per day, and laboring as a farmhand during coffee
harvest seasons. She slept very few hours, and during milking periods, she had to wake up at 1:00
a.m. to have the milk ready by 6:00 a.m., when the truck would arrive to collect it.
Despite her hard work and sacrifices, she could not adequately meet her family’s basic needs: daily
bread, a decent home, basic healthcare, and education.
Juana met the father of her children at the age of 23. After 33 years together, he abandoned the
family, leaving her responsible for their three youngest children. Despite her relentless efforts, she
faced conditions of extreme poverty, earning barely $1 a day, which equated to $0.14
per capita—far below the extreme poverty line.
Everything changed in 2015 when Juana was selected to join Agros’ program in the
community of La Bendición. It was thanks to Edwin, her eldest son, who was part of the
first families in the program in this village, that Juana found the opportunity to rewrite her
story.
Through the Agros program, Juana and her 7 children built a dignified home and received
4.6 acres of land. She began by planting corn and beans to ensure her family’s food
security. Later, with financial support and technical assistance from Agros, she planted
3,45 acres of coffee.
I’ve included Agros in my estate plan because I have seen firsthand the results of long-term mentorship, healthy families,
and the economics of investing in people who believe they can rise out of poverty into productive lives — not just for their
families but for generations to come. In a world full of discouragement and despair, we have witnessed this hope in the
eyes of children and their parents, and I want to be a part of that movement. Agros has restored hope in Central America.
“When I arrived in this community, I cried tears of joy. I had always asked God to give me the opportunity to have something of my own, for my family to have the chance “to live in a decent home and work their own land. We were tired of constantly moving from one
place to another,” she shares.
Three years after Agros’ intervention in her productive activities, Juana successfully developed her coffee plantation, a crop she has continued to maintain each year. This achievement required hard work, including training in good agricultural practices for coffee production, performing the necessary tasks to establish and harvest the crop, and dedicating herself daily to its management, relying solely on her own labor and that of
her children
Over the years, as she has been able to increase her income more steadily, Juana has
invested in improving her home, especially in the kitchen area, which she enjoys.
To date her net worth is US$47,460,
including her home and productive land.
“Although I am already a little old, my dream is for my children and grandchildren to have better opportunities. I did not manage to study, and I want them to have that opportunity. Every day I wake up with the motivation to go to work on my plot of land, in my own time and with my own effort. I have always wanted to change this history of slavery,” Juana says with tears of joy.
