Jessica Selmo was born into a low-income family with big dreams of achieving success and financial stability, which is why she decided to start a business to support her family.

“I come from a social stratum with few opportunities. When I finished high school, I wanted to go to university; however, I needed to pay for my studies, and since I didn't have the money for this, at 18 I decided to take out a RD$6,000 loan from the Dominican Development Foundation, as no institution would risk lending to me because of my age and lack of a steady job. With this money, I opened a coffee, tea, and hot chocolate stand.

I would get up at 4:00 in the morning to prepare the sale with the help of my mother and then go out to sell on the street. With the money I earned, I paid off my loan, withdrew money for my studies, helped my mother, and saved what I could. Six months later, I finished paying off the loan and decided to start a baking workshop at INFOTEP. At the same time, I took a Financial Education workshop from the Fundación Reservas del País through the FDD. There I learned to organize myself financially. I kept a notebook where I wrote down the money I had. I earned.

I was able to save a few pounds, and later, with a colleague and my mother, we started making snacks, cakes, and donuts from home. With the money I was already generating and the clientele I'd built, I stopped selling coffee on the street. Then I decided to take out another loan to open a small shop and buy equipment. That's how my dream, Jessica Cake - Pastry Shop, was born. I recently moved to a larger space, now have an employee, and my next steps are to buy a mixer and industrial oven to fulfill more orders."