In the rural locality of Cotraucó, in the commune of San Ignacio, Ñuble Region, Chile, Marjorie Avilés has built a story of work, perseverance and community leadership over more than two decades. A berry producer dedicated to growing strawberries and raspberries, she arrived in the area in 2000, when conditions for entrepreneurship were especially difficult.
“There was no connectivity of any kind, the roads were not very good, and families did not have many alternatives beyond the crops they usually planted,” she recalls. In that context, together with other women from the area, she began to ask what they could do to contribute to the growth of their families and their community.
“We got together with some women and started thinking about what would be best, how we could contribute to our families, to the growth of our sector, of our locality, because we felt we were worth a lot, but that this needed to be valued more,” Marjorie says.
Rural women who transformed local memory into opportunity
They found the answer by looking at the history of the territory. When they researched the productive activities that families in the area had developed in the past, they discovered that some had once sold strawberries. That local memory became an opportunity to open a new path.
That is how a project led by rural women from Cotraucó was born. They designed it, submitted it, secured approval and began working the land with their own hands. “We women started working with shovels, tools and horses. We asked our families for help; the women asked their husbands for help. That is how we moved this project forward,” she recalls.
They planted 15,000 strawberry plants, a milestone for the commune of San Ignacio. However, the journey was not free of prejudice. Marjorie remembers that many people questioned what they were doing. “They would say to us: ‘What are you doing there? Go home, go cook, do women’s things, not men’s things,’” she says.
But they kept going. With effort, organization and conviction, they showed that rural women could lead productive initiatives, generate income, create opportunities for their families and strengthen the identity of their locality.
When there is no signal, opportunities are also lost
Years later, Marjorie’s enterprise and those of other women producers in Cotraucó had become consolidated. But one barrier continued to affect their possibilities for growth: the lack of connectivity.
In a world where sales, meetings, procedures, information and services are increasingly coordinated through digital platforms, having no signal meant being left out of many opportunities. For Marjorie, this had direct consequences for her business.
Without a digital location, fluid communication or real-time information, many commercial opportunities were lost before they could be completed.
That reality began to change with the arrival of Connected Communities, which seeks to reduce the digital divide in lagging rural territories through internet access, digital skills training, stronger telehealth services, access to public services and support for local productive development.
The programme is developed by UN Chile together with the Government and partners from the public and private sectors, with funding from the United Nations Joint SDG Fund. In its territorial implementation, it also coordinates work with the Regional Governments of Ñuble and La Araucanía, municipalities, communities and local actors.
In Ñuble, the initiative has already surpassed its initial targets, which considered 25 connectivity points, and is now moving into a new stage focused on training so that communities can fully use connectivity in education, health, access to State services, productivity and local development.
An antenna to learn, sell and reach the world
For Marjorie, having an antenna closer to her community has meant an improvement for her business. Today, she can receive messages on time, coordinate sales, share her location with customers and respond more quickly to people looking for her products.
“Now this has been solved, because we have the antenna closer. It has been much better, because customers can now communicate with us and we can share our location, we can tell them where we are,” she says.
Connectivity does not only improve sales. It also opens new possibilities to learn, participate in online meetings, access information, get to know digital tools and project local products into new markets. For a rural producer, being connected can make the difference between remaining isolated and joining new development networks.
The impact also reaches families and the community. In territories such as Cotraucó, the internet makes it easier for children and young people to study without depending on long journeys to do homework, for people to access State services and for communities to communicate more promptly.
“We needed to have an internet signal, because today everything takes you to a webpage, a link, an online meeting. If you do not have a signal, you stay where you are: people over there move forward, and we remain here,” Marjorie says.
Marjorie’s story shows that connectivity is much more than infrastructure. It is a tool to strengthen economic autonomy, reduce territorial inequalities and expand opportunities for rural women. It is also a gateway for communities to participate more fully in the country’s economic, social and digital life.
Connected Communities promotes educational, technological and leadership opportunities so that girls and women can develop their talents, strengthen their confidence and become protagonists of a better future.
