Doña Leli

Jorgelina González, known throughout the community as Doña Leli, was the first farmer to join Club Tukã in April of 2021. And it is not surprising that she was the first to commit. Leli has been passionate in her efforts to help her community since she founded a women’s organization that has been working together since 1998. Currently 60 strong, all members are mothers, with about 50% of them being single mothers. Leli and her group have been working with the Paraguayan office of the World Wildlife Fund, whose focus at a macro level includes protecting and restoring land within the Upper Paraná Atlantic Forest Ecoregion. At a micro level, both the WWF and Tukã are in sync with efforts to assist rural farmers in doing just that by cultivating the same yerba mate that has traditionally grown wild in the forest region for centuries. This has served to bolster the local economy and, according to Leli, might just help keep the younger generations from being forced to move away in search of employment. As for Tukã, Leli affirms that...

“We are hopeful to work with Tukã and we wish that all our farmers will do things right so that we can work together for many years to come. On our side we will make sure that there is nothing done wrong because we understand that the more successful Tukã becomes, the better we are all going to be. We look forward to grow by the hand of Tukã, primarily selling yerba mate, but also, in the future, other products that they might want to export from Paraguay to the U.S. We are seriously committed to work and do things the right way and we are very happy to attend the Tukã [Academy] meetings where we are taught about new ways to do things and we learn the things that we need to do to get to have an organic certified yerba mate. We know that today we have lots of non-certified product, but we are confident that in the near future we will reach the goal of having all of the farmers growing organic yerba mate. Sometimes we farmers like to think we know a lot, but thanks to the Tukã meeting we realized that there is a lot more to learn and improve.”

Leli’s daughter, Ninfa Villalba Gonzalez, has worked with her mother’s group for the past 13 years. She remembers her pride in seeing how her mother’s work empowered women in their community.

“… we are taking care of the native trees and harvesting them… The [number] of leaves harvested from these trees is equivalent to the harvest of 10,000 smaller trees that can be farmed on our properties… This harvest has to be made in a way that doesn’t hurt the trees but in fact helps them to grow stronger. Some of these wild trees are over 60 years old, most likely spread around by the Toucan birds, and it is very important for us to protect these native trees...”