It was not expected. Dina is a garment maker, makes clothes, and last April she worked hard and steady. She got the juice out of her sewing machine! How long would it take for her to get her electricity bill? Her uncertainty was great, since it was her first receipt. She believed that she would have to pay much more than fifty soles. When she received the receipt from her, she couldn't believe it: twenty-eight soles.
Born in Abancay, Apurímac, her passion for making clothes was born by observing her mother. She sewed with crochet hooks and sticks, she also cared for her animals and her nine children while her husband worked the land. Dina finished primary school at the age of 14. If she wanted to continue studying, she would have to migrate. That is why she came to Lima. She was taken in by an aunt, but she left after a few months. She doesn't like to bother. Her goal was to grow, but alone, as an independent.
As she was a cook in a house, she enrolled in a technical school and there she found herself with clothing. She learned to make sheets, she sensed that dedicating herself to it could progress, so she hung up the cook's apron and, with a year to finish school, she left it to work in a factory where she learned to sew. Obviously, as soon as she felt that she had mastered the trade, she left to start her own business. So it was that, three years ago, she came to the family group 2 de Noviembre de Las Flores, in San Juan de Lurigancho.
Located at the top of a hill that several motorcycle taxi drivers prefer not to climb to avoid their machines being mistreated, Dina bought a home. Actually, it is her workshop, her center of operations. She lives with Nena, her cat.
For her, access to electricity is vital. Otherwise, she couldn't have crafted those baby dresses that will soon carry her brand: Catimini Chic. And that's why she, when she saw that her first receipt said twenty-eight soles, she couldn't believe it.
Ah, well, but the following month would be different, she thought, because the job increased, she had to hire an assistant and, now, surely the receipt from her would bring her back to reality. How much did she go out for? Thirty-five soles. That!
"Now I have my own light meter, I control everything myself."
She was recently hired to make over 400 pieces of lingerie. Working in these conditions is something else. Her dream of having her own store where she sells her confections is closer to her. Now that her home has electric power service, it has also appreciated. She could even sell it, she thinks. There is no doubt, with the arrival of light to her house-workshop, Dina's energy and her vision of her future are different. Development has come into her life.