 |
|
|
|
 |
|
||
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|||||
Field News
November 2010 Through the dedicated work of our newest Flex Volunteer, Mary Kate Connell, the town of Jacaltenango, Guatemala is now home to the very first house painted by Soluciones Comunitarias (SolCom), the social enterprise that Social Entrepreneur Corps leadership created to implement its unique MicroConsignment Model (MCM) in Guatemala. The house, which belongs to Guatemalan MCM entrepreneur Manuela Carmelo Hacinto, is now painted with pictures of SolCom's products. Mary Kate worked in the rain and through the night to finish the pictures in one and a half days. Watching Mary Kate paint became quite the pastime in the town, and the spectacle even facilitated the sale of a water filter. Through this sort of advertising and awareness creation, MCM entrepreneurs increase their visibility and their sales. November 2009 To wrap up his orientation, Travis recently supported two of Soluciones Comunitarias ('Sol Com") entrepreneurs, Julia and Angelica, in a village campaign in San Felipe, Escuintla. Travis and the entrepreneurs boarded a crowded chicken bus at 7am with a basket of all of SolCom’s products and services needed for a successful campaign. After an hour and half in the bus, they arrived in San Felipe and walked to the “tienda” where they had decided to hold the campaign. Travis, Julia and Angelica were greeted by a crowd of over two dozen people waiting for the campaign to begin. In sweltering Guatemalan Coast heat, Julia and Angelica began giving eye exams to the waiting crowd. Travis dove right in and gave over 15 eye exams to people suffering from Presbyopia. Two hours into the campaign, Travis took a break from the eye exams to present Solar Lamps to 45 villagers waiting for their exam. Travis showed the crowd the lamp and explained to them how it works and what benefits a solar lamp can bring to a family and to students. The villagers were very interested in the lamps and asked Travis many questions. At the end of the presentation, one woman bought a lamp explaining that she likes to read at night and that the lamp will help her daughter study at night as well. After four hours and over 50 eye exams Travis, Julia and Angelica headed back to Antigua. Their combined efforts resulted in the sales of 12 reading glasses, 5 sun glasses, 10 saline eye drops, 1 energy saving light bulb, 4 packets of vegetable seeds and 1 solar lamp. The entrepreneurs earned $50 and were able to help over 45 villagers save money and increase their productivity at work and school. October 2009 October 2009 Interns of SECorps 2009 8-week Summer Program helped to vet and gage interest in making and selling peanut butter as a fundraiser for the Centro Explorativo and other organizations. The interns tested several different peanut butter recipes as well as created a comprehensive business plan and marketing strategies. Due to their hard work and efforts, SECorps Gap Year Program Fellows will be building upon the information and knowledge of the summer interns and helping to create and promote the Peanut Butter Project at the Centro Explorativo. Money earned from the sales of the peanut butter will go towards the Centro. October 2009 As part of SECorps Flex Volunteer Program, we have two new independent volunteers, Helen Vo and Shreya Patel. Both Helen and Shreya are stationed up in Nebaj, Quiche. Among her many jobs and projects, Helen has been busy taking footage of entrepreneur trainings and village campaigns and promotions. She will create videos that will be used as a training resource for regional coordinators, staff and volunteers as well as for entrepreneurs. Shreya, fitting to her background and experience, will be helping us make needed improvements and expansions in the Nebaj Tourism Businesses as one of her various projects.
September 2009 The interns of SECorps 2009 Summer Programs donated money to the Centro Explorativo en La Pista through the VNGO initiative. They designated the money for various initiatives at the Centro including materials such as books for children and new chess boards for the chess classes. The interns also donated money to buy a new photocopier for the Centro. In September, a photocopier was bought, the first and only in the small town of La Pista. The photocopier has allowed for much easier classroom planning and projects. It has also lead to the creation of a small “libreria” that will help raise funds for the Centro and the children and students who attend. September 2009 El Portal is a Spanish School for tourists who visit Quetzaltenango (Xela). The profits of El Portal go towards giving full scholarships to children of single mothers who cannot afford to send their children to school. As part of our AsesorPorFavor initiative, interns of SECorps 2009, helped the school create better publicity and improve the school’s booking keeping and banking capabilities. As a result of the collaboration, the interns generously decided to donate money to the school. The donations went towards purchasing advertising space in the Lonely Planet and in local magazines as well in printing out their new fliers and brochures. The donations also helped supply the school with new Spanish grammar books and a SolCom water filter. Today, the collaboration between SECorps and El Portal continues. Currently, SECorps is helping to redesign and update El Portal’s webpage. September 2009 Good Stuff Good Works is a new initiative that directly provides access to Guatemalan artisans by selling their textile products in the United States. Social Entrepreneur Corps forms partnerships with women weaving cooperatives throughout Guatemala and has built an extensive network to create sales in the United States through trunk shows, store vendors, and collaborating with university philanthropies. September 2009 During Social Entrepreneur Corps 2009, SEC participants launched an initiative called Asesor Por Favor (Consultant Please) to work with small businesses and organizations in Guatemala. In the region of Solola, their work left a big impact at Asociación de Mujeres Tejedoras con Tinte Natural Lemá, a women’s weaving coop that uses natural dying techniques that have been passed down through generations of weavers. The SEC interns trained the association in proper conduct for a homestay and how to publicize a homestay program successfully. The interns also created a new informational brochure for Lemá that outlines the proposed homestay program and weaving classes offered by the association. Lemá is now operating a Homestay/Weaving Class combined program to tourists visiting their town, and much of that is due to the hard work and dedication shown by our SEC participants. August 2009 Interns of SECorps 2009 helped train three new libraries to become Micro-Franchises (Socio Comunitario) this summer in Quiche and Quetzaltenango. In their first campaigns, the libraries earned a combined total of $524.00. The money earned from campaigns goes directly to support the important and impactful mission and initiatives of the libraries including the purchase of new books and the paying for internet services for their computers. The Micro-Franchises also allow the libraries to further help their communities and patrons by offering them the products and services of SolCom. Today, SolCom works with six Riecken Libraries in the regions of Quiche, Quetzaltenango and Coban. We are currently planning the Micro Franchise training of two new libraries in the Region of San Marcos. September 2008 Social Entrepreneur Corps begins a needs, feasibility and pilot project analysis for U-Specs. U-Specs has designed innovative glasses for children who suffer from myopia. The Social Entrepreneur Corps team, in conjunction with the entrepreneurs working for the social enterprise created by Community Enterprise Solutions, Soluciones Comunitarias, was chosen as the first organization in the world to test this new invention. This engagement was based on Social Entrepreneur Corps leaderships’ expertise and proven success and history of rural economic development innovation. October 2009 SEC leaders Zac Smith and Michelle Berkowitz travelled to the fishing village of Palmar to visit with some homestay families that SEC interns lived with in June and July as well as make a donation on behalf of Virtual NGO Teams “Esperanza and Oportunidad”. Zac, Michelle, and the family of Doña Nely spent an entire afternoon reminiscing of the great experiences and friendships that were made during the SEC visits to Palmar. Doña Nely and her family send their best wishes to the SEC interns that they became friends with over the summer of 2009. October 2009 Neo-Juventud, an Ecuadorian youth organization constantly moving in a positive direction, had already started the process of opening an Internet Café, a project that SEC interns helped plan during the summer of 2009. President Marcelo Gonzalez (pictured) and the group were excited to be informed that Virtual NGO Team “Oportunidad” from the 8 Week Summer Internship Program had donated $200 to benefit the opening of the café. Neo-Juventud was very gracious knowing that the money donated would cover the operational costs of their first month of business. Miguel Muñoz, leader of Neo-Juventud’s Artisan Shop, while busy working on a large order of woven bracelets placed by Franklin & Marshall University, was even more pleased to find out that Virtual NGO Team “Esperanza” had donated $100 so that he will be able to create a rustic-style engraved wooden sign to attract more clients to the Artisan shop from the coastal highway. October 2009 Asesoras Comunitarias from the region of Principal, Azuay decided to take on a special initiative. The Asesoras Comunitarias, interested in serving their community to the best of their abilities, organized a day to treat those community members that suffered from vision afflictions that needed medical attention. Together with Soluciones Comunitarias representatives and The Foundation Casa Hogar, the Asesoras Comunitarias brought over 20 people to the city of Cuenca to receive treatment for such afflictions as myopia, cataracts, glaucoma, and pterigion. The Asesoras Comunitarias specifically thanked Social Entrepreneur Corps for the collaborative experiences from the summer, which inspired them to provide more services to their communities. October 2009 The community of Zhucos in the city of Loja was the recipient of a recent SE Corps VNGO investment, specifically, the community bank of San Jose. The visit was a complete surprise to the 60 members of the community bank. They gratefully accepted a $300 donation on behalf of the Virtual NGO Team “Esperanza”. This money is to be put towards a “social fund” that will be provide a source of capital for any members that have emergency situations and need money to cover those expenses. Many wishes of gratitude were sent from the bank members to the SEC interns that visited their community and decided to devote money that will continue to benefit the community for years to come. October 2010 Social Entrepreneur Corps Co-Founder Bucky Glickley and Guatemala Country Director Lydia Walker have just returned from South Africa, where they spent two weeks conducting a MicroConsignment feasibility study and needs assessment for potential expansion. Bucky and Lydia focused their efforts on two distinct areas: the township of Khayelitsha in Cape Town and the Limpopo Province in the Eastern/Northern Cape. These regions afford us the unique opportunity to explore the potential to work in both urban and rural areas where there is great need for access to essential products and services and in turn for MCM impact. As well, opportunities to implement our unique consulting service, "Asesor Por Favor", amongst other initiatives, were successfully identified during the needs assessment visits. In particular, Bucky and Lydia also determined that there is great potential opportunity for a successful square foot gardening/rooftop gardening initiative in Khayelistha and many other townships, an initiative that Social Entrepreneur Corps interns focused heavily on this past summer in Guatemala and could be potentially replicated in South Africa in 2011. Bucky and Lydia also visited several rural villages in the Limpopo Province with Women's Development Businesses, the second largest microcredit bank in South Africa. We are exploring the opportunity of working with them as a potential partner moving forward to help identify, train and support rural entrepreneurs in general business capacities as well as specific MicroConsignment training and implementation. We are excited to begin training new entrepreneurs in the next several months and launch our first South Africa Social Entrepreneur Corps program in Summer 2011!
|
