Change can be a blessing or a curse: it depends on how you see it that makes the difference - by Rebeca Valle Anfossi

Edith with her parents and brother

Edith and her mom, Elsa

Edith on her farm

Edith grew up under the Huancayo sky, in the province of Junín in Peru. Edith and her brother Ivan were very much loved by their parents and teachers, but special attention was paid to Edith who was born with a heart condition.

In order to find a cure for Edith’s ailment, Elsa, Edith's mother and Edith travelled to Lima, to the capital city, where Edith was admitted and operated on in the “Hospital del Niño”. She and her mother stayed in the hospital for 2 months where Elsa took care of her daughter Edith. On Christmas day, Edith was discharged from the hospital and her father Mario and brother Ivan traveled to Lima to take them back home.

Life continued.

When Edith was 14 her life and that of her family had a radical change: her father and uncle travelling to their hometown in a van got into a terrible road accident that would end up taking both their lives.

Over time, Edith’s mom had to make a decision and chose to travel to Satipo in Junin to buy a coffee farm. Elsa lived on a coffee farm as a child and now she would return to work growing coffee again - a life she enjoyed.

The trips were constant, going from Huancayo to Satipo became a common daily event, but Elsa worked the land and cared for her children.

Edith decided to study engineering in the food industries in the National University of Central Peru. She was to leave her mother alone with all the duties of managing a coffee farm. It was difficult to leave her family and it took a lot of strength to do so.

Close to graduation day Edith was told the worse news that a daughter could ever hear: on one of her usual trips to the coffee farm, Elsa lost her life – just as her father Mario had – in a road accident travelling by bus home. There was no graduation party for Edith, just sadness and isolation for what was the most shocking and saddest moment of her life.

Two years had passed since the passing away of her mother when Edith decided to travel to Satipo - just to verify that workers were cutting the weeds and keeping the coffee farm in order. On those trips, Edith’s love for coffee was growing stronger and stronger, slowly conquering her. Every day she was on the coffee farm, Edith would learn new things – her eyes were opening to a world she only knew on a very superficial level.

After her adversity, something changed in Edith. She does not know how she found the strength and energy to move forward, but it was her brother that helped her stop mourning and move forward.

Edith was also indignant by the mistreatment of the coffee producers by the coffee buyers.  She thought she could do something different, make a change, but she had no support.

She found the strength to travel to Lima and looked for training courses in coffee. She lived alone at the beginning, but thanks to the scholarship program that she won which supported women entrepreneurs, Edith was in contact with people who understood coffee and learned what she had to do to make sure her mother’s coffee farm produced specialty coffee.

She decided to call her coffee farm “Tasta” in honor of her mother's hometown, Tastapampa. Edith is now one of the most requested coffee producers; her coffee is sold in cafes and gourmet restaurants. “Tasta” also grows other crops now: passion fruit, pituca, yuca, banana…there is even a fish hatchery. Fifteen people with their families work under her charge. Edith's desire is to empower local women and be an example of how taking care of a farm also means taking care of the people who work it.

Edith hopes that what she is doing is making her parents proud of her. I’m pretty confident that they are indeed proud of their little Edith.