From an early age, Fernanda Hidalgo knew what she wanted to be: a teacher. That love for teaching children led her to study early childhood education in Guayaquil. However, he could not finish it.

She became the mother of Jesus, Annie and Gael. Over time there were, even though her husband Eduardo Yépez was working the need for new income. Fernanda meditated and thought of a way to have a job while taking care of her children.

“I had the need to look for a job because we have three children, and only my husband was working; Here in the country, I have no relatives to help me look after the children, so it was difficult for me to go to work, to take them to daycare. I started looking for ways to earn money and it occurred to me to make ends meet at home, but I didn’t have time,” says Fernanda, 32 years old.

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After that, the idea of create books based on the knowledge he has acquired, since in previous years Fernanda worked as a teacher. So he took the fomix, printed out the educational material and stuck it on.

That finished work did not convince her and she gave it to her children to practice vowels, numbers and so on. “I continued with the idea of ​​books because I always liked them, I have experience, but no preschool education. I attended courses and always worked as a teacher. I started structuring the books and I didn’t know how to laminate them,” he says.

Fernanda did not stay there and went to the vicinity of the university in Guayaquil and printed, laminated and wrapped her first didactic book there. It was his great start, he points out.

Chikibook offers books from three to nine years. Photo: Carlos Barros. Photo: Carlos Barros

“The first time I held those two books in my hands, I felt that it was a great idea. because it was something I had not seen in the country and I felt it was beautiful, as if to say so I have a treasure“, he points out.

And then he was born chikibook, a venture that has been going on for four years and already has a portfolio of 43 types of books. These are A3, A4 and A5 formats. The content is created by Fernanda, and the cartoons are by her children. The sheets are plasticized and then ringed.

A minor can perform exercises such as write the vowels or join them into lines with an erasable marker. And it can be used multiple times. You can also stick figures like animals with thistle. These types of books are age appropriatesays Fernanda.

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For example, a book ChiquiStrokes I recommend it for three years because it has all the features that the child will see in primary (education) 1. They are focused on helping the child to reach the level of knowledge that he should have, and the second thing is that they work with fine motor skills, with eye and hand coordination, memory, concentration”, he explains.

For the first few weeks, I was selling five books a week, and now I’m selling between 20 and 30. Prices range from $15 to $38 and Chikititos, 123Chiki, DinoChiki, Play with plasticine or my first words. In addition, it has contracts with other entrepreneurs in the provinces of El Oro, Pichincha, Manabí and Loja, who buy in bulk. Her books have also gone to other countries, so Fernanda translates them into English, French, Italian and German. This was a big challenge, he admits.

Along the way, Fernanda experienced several obstacles, such as the closing of her shop, which she had for a month in December 2022, due to crime. In the neighborhood where his shop was, he heard about extortion and preferred not to risk it and devoted himself to selling at home.

The second difficulty is import of adhesive velcro tapes. “It’s not easy to find because it’s not here,” he says, adding that he does this shopping every month and brings it from the USA and China.

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Fernanda is proud of her work and the achievements she has made, such as her printers, laminators and until the employment of his sister, aunt and niece. His family practically lives on ChikibookEven her husband quit his job because of the high demand for work. Both her husband and other relatives support her in compiling the books, which until They helped children with autism and Down syndrome.

“We were well received. Customer testimonials with the results they see in their children. Like, I didn’t know when I started this how far-reaching it would be. My products are created for ordinary children, but they are very useful for children with different abilities such as autism and Down syndrome. We have a map that has a system for autistic children”, confirms Fernanda, who notes that her clients are not only mothers, but also therapists and teachers.

The Chikibook brand was also registered with this big step Fernanda does not want to be alone with selling books, but wants to guide her parents so that they can create them. “I want to teach people to design their own books, I want to share it with more people who have a source of income. Since the market is new, there is definitely something for everyone,” Fernanda says, and she also intends to hold workshops.

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We hereby encourage mothers to give their sons a Chikibook instead of a phone, he points out.

He advises entrepreneurs to believe in their product and potential. “Because people will come to you and say ‘will people pay you for that?’, ‘and at that price will you sell?’; then we will find people with closed minds and we should believe in their product”, he points out. He suggests being persistent and not giving up at the first hurdle.