Give us a hand- With a little help of our friends we hope we will reach our goals.

  • US$150.00
    raised of $14,000.00 goal goal
1% Funded
7 Donors

No more donations are being accepted at this time. Please contact the campaign owner if you would like to discuss further funding opportunities

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Hello and thank you for visiting our campaign page!

We live and work in a very small rural town in Costa Rica, needed of job opportunities and our dream is to make our project sustainable.

It's a dream, give us a hand to reach it!


My name is Angie, and this is our story...

12 years ago I decided to leave the "hustle and bustle" of the city and invested all of my savings in a small hotel in Nuevo Arenal, a small town in the North of Costa Rica, and ran it rather successfully until the first months of 2009 when we got hit by the world crisis that affected many business in the United States. Tourists' flow decreased suddenly within months, and after fighting tooth and nail, the hotel was closed and 15 families of this small town were left without a job, or an income, including mine...

On that same dreadful year my husband was diagnosed with COPD, and we had to come together as a family to face that chapter, not knowing how long and painful it was going to be...

I have always been a fighter and I was not ready to give up, I was not going to give up the town that had become my home and I decided to sell what was left and moved to an abandoned farm on the outskirts of town. Rent was cheap and the place was big enough to allow me to keep caring for Guido (my husband) at home and start a tiny rural business... and here I started again.

We bought 3 cows, I mastered the art of cheese hand crafting and this is how "Quesos del Lago" (Cheeses of the Lake) was born.


For almost 5 years, my little team of 2 local workers have been taking care of the cows, the calves and pastures, helping me to run this little artisan cheese factory, producing fresh cheese, mozzarella cheese, cream Philadelphia style cheese and yogurt, all products well accepted in the market, not only in the Arenal area and surroundings, but for those who have tasted them in San Jose, even if the company has a very small production capacity, this has paid our bills and has become my passion, I love working the farm and I always try to improve and move forward...


This has been a little school for the local workers, even for Beto, a young guy with a mild autism, who has been with the project since the beginning and has learn how to milk and even prepare and pack the cheeses.

In the past few weeks, things came to an abrupt halt, the income from the cheese production is just enough to live "paycheck to paycheck" and at the beginning of October Guido was moved to hospice care and sent home; he is now in the latest stages of COPD and carrying for him is a chore that takes up most of my time; regardless, we have decided to keep him home, where he is comfortable and still part of the family dynamic, but medical bills plus the slow growing economy make it very difficult for our family business to remain afloat...

In the next month, high season starts and for that reason we are looking for support and help to achieve the necessary resources to expand the production and let our business grow to a next step to produce enough to open two more jobs for this tiny town and provide income enough for all the needs.


Our goal is:

  • Buying some more cows
  • A vehicle to deliver the product
  • Two new tables for work
  • And be able to offer employment to two more people of the community and thereby increase the income of our little venture.

We are not asking for help to work less, we are reaching out to the world community, good faith people who believe in hard work and never giving up... because no matter what, we wont give up!

Angie is 56 years old now and her dream is to keep working many more years in this tiny rural town, participating and sharing with the community, taking care of her animals, the small cheese factory and her organic vegetables garden.


FEEL SAFE TO DONATE WITH YOUR CREDIT OR DEBIT CARD

No PAYPAL? No problem!

Hit DONATE, Hit PAYPAL and chose BUY AS A GUEST!

DONATION PROCESS IS JUST LIKE ONLINE SHOPPING AND THERE IS NO CHANCE ANY OTHER AMOUNT CAN BE CHARGED TO YOUR DEBIT OR CREDIT CARD


From the bottom of our hearts, Thank you!

Organizer

  • Angie Llobet
  •  
  • Campaign Owner

Donors

  • Stephanie Mc Cloud
  • Donated on Nov 02, 2015
  • �Que Diosito gu�e sus pasos! De col�n en col�n juntamos un mont�n. Pa'lante Un abrazo grande

$50.00
  • Maureen Thomas
  • Donated on Oct 29, 2015
  • Praying for you and your family

$5.00
  • Guest
  • Donated on Oct 29, 2015
  • I wish I had more to give! Blessing for you and your family!

$10.00
Nov 24

New costumers!

Update posted by Angie Llobet at 03:38 pm

Thanks to this campaing we have received requests from some more new costumers, specially for our cream cheese, which is receiving great acceptance!We are working hard to cover all the requests, buying milk from another producers, even if it is increasing our costs. Anyway, our commitment is to keep fighting

See update
0
Nov 10

Support received to our products

Update posted by Angie Llobet at 07:38 pm

We are proud to share that thanks to our campaign we made a great connection with a new friend-client who tried our Philadelphia style cream cheese for their restaurant cheese cakes and they loved it~ they also tasted our yogurt, both products 100% natural without preservatives, coloring or chemicals!Thank you

See update
0

Donors & Comments

7 donors
  • Stephanie Mc Cloud
  • Donated on Nov 02, 2015
  • �Que Diosito gu�e sus pasos! De col�n en col�n juntamos un mont�n. Pa'lante Un abrazo grande

$50.00
  • Maureen Thomas
  • Donated on Oct 29, 2015
  • Praying for you and your family

$5.00
  • Guest
  • Donated on Oct 29, 2015
  • I wish I had more to give! Blessing for you and your family!

$10.00
  • Guest
  • Donated on Oct 29, 2015
  • My dad had COPD, God bless you!

$30.00
  • Guest
  • Donated on Oct 29, 2015
  • God bless, K.

$25.00
  • Angie Llobet
  • Donated on Oct 29, 2015
  • Keep on keeping on!! Smith Family

$25.00
  • Guest
  • Donated on Oct 27, 2015
  • Hard working people deserve a second chance! I wish I had more

$5.00

Followers

3 followers
Stephanie Mc Cloud
Perla Ramirez
Angie Rossi
US$150.00
raised of $14,000.00 goal
1% Funded
7 Donors

No more donations are being accepted at this time. Please contact the campaign owner if you would like to discuss further funding opportunities