Panamanian businessman, at a United Nations event

A few days ago, the 67th session of the Commission on the Legal and Social Status of Women was held in the United States, which was also attended by Panama.

It was hand in hand with chitreana Julia Margarita Sandoval, a micro-entrepreneur who told her story about entrepreneurship.

Sandoval has been dedicated to sales for 40 years typical food The Panamanian woman and her experiences were presented to the United Nations.

From her youth she was a independent woman, For a long time, she devoted herself to working as a street food vendor at fairs, typical dances and parties in the communities of Azuera, until she became a businesswoman who owned her income and her decisions.

She went from assembling and disassembling zinc and wood structures, from fair to fair, to the owner of three restaurants where she employs more than 15 women, most of whom are single mothers.

Sandoval’s intervention took place in the act “Connecting Women in Latin America: A Roadmap Forward”, organized by the BBVA Microfinance Foundation.

Namely

Since 2012, Panama has been served by Microserfin, the Panamanian entity of the BBVA Microfinance Foundation (FMBBVA), with support, access to credit, microinsurance, financial education and, above all, promoting its digitization process.

As he said. the path was not easy, but despite challenges encourages women to advance themselves. “For women to make a commitment, to work for themselves like I did,” he commented.

And it was this encouragement that opened the door for him to add his voice to the event organized in United Nations.

During the act in which he participated, the importance of giving visibility to digitization and connectivity for women and girls, which is that according to the UN Women’s Gender Snapshot 2022 report, in the last 10 years, low- and middle-income countries have lost $1 trillion of their gross domestic product due to the exclusion of women from the digital world, a loss that could grow up to $1.5 trillion in 2025 if appropriate measures are not taken.