Meet
ECLOF clients
Overcoming obstacles
Running
a business is never easy. Sometimes it can be difficult
and soul destroying. In Armenia, one family has had more
than their fair share of hard knocks but determination,
plus a little help from ECLOF, is helping them survive.
Project
Artashat is an Armenian solidarity group that raises and
sells chickens.
The business began in 1978. Project Artashat buys newborn
chicks fresh from the incubator, keeps them for a couple
of months and then sells them in various regions of Armenia.
This
first cycle in poultry keeping is one of the most demanding
and risky, and it requires extensive experience and skill.
Mrs Gohar Aghababyan is the leader of Project Artashat although
she is now in her seventies. Mrs Aghababyan comes from Georgia
and moved to Artashat, her husband's town in the Ararat
valley in south east Armenia, when she married.
Mrs
Aghababyan was 47 when, along with other female members
of her large family, she began Project Artashat. Over the
years, the business has generated enough income from poultry
keeping to meet the basic needs of Mrs Aghababyan's extended,
21-member family.
After
a recent visit to the group, ECLOF International Director,
Muhungi Kanyoro said that it is obvious Mrs Aghababyan remains
the driving force behind Project Artashat. "This is
our only source of income", she explained to Muhungi,
adding that she is proud that it is from the poultry project
and their own sweat that the group members support themselves.
After
the collapse of Soviet Union in 1991, Project Artashat,
like all of Armenia, had to face many difficulties, such
as the lack of gas, electricity and a permanent water supply.
As a result, the group had to reduce the size of its poultry
operation.
Tragedy
The difficulties and shortages did not discourage the group.
Together, they worked day and night to keep the farm running.
Just as things were beginning to improve, one of the group
members, a woman aged 34, who had two small children, was
diagnosed with cancer and required urgent medical assistance.
The
group used all of their savings to pay for the treatment
the woman needed. Sadly, the woman died two years later
leaving her two small children in the care of the other
group members. It is not difficult to imagine how the group
felt. With all their savings gone, they also found themselves
in financial difficulties.
Seeking
help
Project Artashat applied to various banks and credit organizations
for a loan but could not supply the collateral needed. A
poultry veterinarian told the group that she had attended
a cattle breeding workshop where she had heard a presentation
by the Armenian ECLOF Program Manager, Tigran Hovhannisyan,
on ECLOF's lending activities to small and medium sized
farms.
Mrs
Aghababyan immediately contacted Tigran and, with three
of her group members, arranged to visit his office to explain
the needs of Project Artashat.
ECLOF
steps in
In February 2001 Project Artashat received an ECLOF loan
equivalent to US$6,008. The group initially used US$1,800
to buy one-day-old chicks, US$200 for a fodder-mill, US$330
for fodder and US$200 on transport.
Everything
was going fine and the group was making its loan repayments
on time. Then disaster struck. All the 10,000 chicks they
had purchased died. It was later discovered that the chicks
had been infected with a deadly disease while still in the
incubator. The group was faced with yet another tremendous
obstacle.
This
experience is an example of a common problem faced by groups
in Armenia like Project Artashat, viz. poor quality control
of basic inputs.
Although
it was difficult for the group, they insisted on meeting
their final loan repayments because they want to remain
credible clients in the eyes of Armenian ECLOF as it is
the only organization that has had confidence in them and
has helped them rebuild their business. In addition, Armenian
ECLOF gave them more time.
The
group members are determined not to let this latest set
back put an end to their enterprise and have recently applied
for a new loan equivalent to US$3,000. This is part of a
plan to become independent of chick suppliers. None of the
suppliers in the area is willing to give a guarantee of
health for the chicks it sells. Project Artashat therefore
intends to use the latest loan to buy a healthy batch of
birds in order, once more, to rebuild the business. After
the group repay this loan, they then plan to apply for another
in order to buy an incubator and thereby become their own
supplier of new-born chicks.
Project Artashat includes four families and spans three
generations. Mrs Gohar Aghababyan (centre), the matriarch
of the group, signs for the project's latest loan in the
presence of Tigran Hovhannisyan, Programme Manager of Armenian
ECLOF.
The feathers may fly but Gohar Aghababyan (left) and Hranoush
Hakobyan refuse to let set-backs ruffle their business plans.
Editor's
note:
In later discussion with Armenian ECLOF, the committee confirmed
that the first loan was too large for the group given the
group's circumstances and capacity.
Opportunity
knocks!
When
a gap in the market presented itself, a group of women in
Malawi were quick to respond.
The
seven women who make up the Ehima Community Solidarity Group
live in Soche East, an overcrowded area six kilometres east
of Blantyre, the capital of Malawi. The women are all widows
and between them have 26 children.
The
average monthly income in Soche East is MK8,500 (US$96).
There are over 5,000 children in the area but, despite extensive
poverty, no free public schools. Many determined families
sacrifice and struggle to pay the cost of public transport
in order to send their children to public schools in Blantyre.
However, few can afford to send all their children to school.
Therefore, when children complete their primary education
they do not go on to secondary school because their younger
siblings must take their place in primary school.
There
are also no public health care facilities in Soche East.
Private clinics exist but are expensive. As the women of
the Ehima Community Solidarity Group point out, "If
someone in our families gets really ill, we must pay a fortune
for proper health care."
Business
success
When the only clothing store in Soche East closed, the women
decided to step in and open their own new and secondhand
clothes shops. Business went well and, within a few months,
the group needed a cash injection to buy more stock and
applied for an ECLOF Malawi loan. The women first attended
an ECLOF course on group dynamics and business record keeping.
Afterwards, they received a loan of MK117,000 (US$1,450),
or US$207 for each of the seven women.
Thanks
to the additional income that the ECLOF loan has generated,
the group is optimistic that business will continue to increase
and that they will be able to expand. The women want to
earn enough to be able to keep their children in school
through secondary level, and to give them proper food and
health care.
Support
An ECLOF Malawi loan officer travels to Soche East every
two weeks to visit the Ehima Community Solidarity Group.
The women take advantage of the visits to make their loan
repayments. This avoids costly travel to the city, as well
as the loss of working hours. At the same time, the loan
officer can give advice to the members on how to improve
their businesses or maintain records.
'I'll
have that one, please!' Ehima Community Solidarity Group
members, Gladys Salanjira (right), Hilde Makani (left),
and Gerlie Liabuba (standing), serve a customer at Mrs Salanjira's
clothing store. Mrs Libuba is the group's treasurer and
collects her colleagues' loan repayment to hand over to
ECLOF Malawi.
More
than a clinic
In
northern Tanzania, not far from the towering mountain
of Kilimanjaro, a unique development project is helping
local people achieve better health and higher living standards.
The
Primary Health Care Ambassador Foundation (PHCAF) is based
in the town of Moshi. Late last year, the Foundation received
an ECLOF loan of TShs20,000,000 (US$20,300) toward a total
of TShs76,800,000 (US$78,000) to pay for the completion
of an outpatient clinic. The clinic can treat 31,200 patients
a year.
At
first sight, this seems to be a normal ECLOF loan to finance
health care. In fact, the clinic is but one part of a
unique comprehensive rural community development complex
that provides accommodation for the clinic, as well as
a guesthouse, a practical rural technology service, animal
health, agriculture and natural resource conservation
services, and meeting rooms and offices.
PHCAF
maintains that basic health is essential for development,
and to achieve and maintain good health requires not only
direct health care but also preventive strategies.
In
line with this belief, PHCAF has taught people in the
region a number of techniques including:
-
an
economical way to construct 2000 litre rainwater collection
jars;
-
an economical and ecologically friendly method to construct
water filters;
-
an economical means to construct domestic water storage
jars
-
how to provide more efficient latrines
-
how to make a low wood consumption water heater and
stove
To
complement these efforts, PHCAF conducts seminars for
village representatives and instructors on diseases caused
by unsafe drinking water, and how to produce a sustainable
source of food and energy from the local environment.
Part
of the community
PHCAF has become an integral part of the six-village rural
community it serves, thanks to the practical approach
it has taken to promote health and development. In return,
the community donated the land where the complex is located,
and for which local villagers and businesses gave many
of the raw building materials. The Foundation's technology
department then prepared the materials for use.
The
support of the local community is further shown by the
fact that PHCAF is both self-sufficient and that its own
substantial contribution to the total cost of building
the clinic came from income derived largely from services
it provides for the local community. PHCAF also works
closely with schools in the region on health programmes
and sanitary conditions.
The
Primary Health Care Ambassador Foundation clinic in Moshi
can treat 31,200 patients each year.
School
children register for health screening.
Villagers
learn how to build cement storage jars for drinking water.
My,
that's big! But it costs only US$70 to build a 2000 litre
water collection jar. It's well worth learning the art!
Cochineal
comeback
How
ECLOF is helping a valuable bug return to Bolivia
Cochineal
is a dye made from the dried bodies of the females of
a small cactus-eating insect. In Spanish the insect is
called a "cochinilla". It is shaped like a small
grain, and is deep reddish brown, like the colour of a
ripe coffee bean, but is covered with a white layer of
cactus dust. The bugs are raised to produce natural scarlet,
crimson and orange dyes, which are used to colour fabric
and many every-day foods, drugs and cosmetics.
The
traditionally peasant family-based activity of raising
and processing cochineal insects in Central and South
America fell dramatically with the introduction of synthetic
dyes and food colouring.
Thanks
to growing demand in recent years for ecological or natural
products, there is now a resurgence in the production
and processing of the insects in many regions where the
climate is appropriate for the activity.
Bolivia
One example of the comeback of the cochineal insects is
in the north of Bolivia where, in the Tarija and Chuquisaca
regions, some 125 peasant farming families have begun
to raise them.
In
1998, these farmers founded Southern Agricultural Marketing
and Consultancy, Inc. [Comercializadora y Consultora Agropecuaria
del Sur - (CYCAsur, S.A.)]. This group assists members
with the production and marketing of cochineal insects.
In
2002, ECLOF Bolivia supported CYCAsur with a loan of US$20,000
to finance the collection and marketing of its members'
production. ECLOF made the loan not only because of the
usefulness and feasibility of the project, but also because
CYCAsur's activities are of a more widely social nature.
The
most important aspect of the group's work is to identify
and secure the best large-scale export markets for its
members’ products. CYCAsur S.A. is currently working
with 125 peasant farming families by granting them capital
loans to finance the production of the insects. On the
marketing side, CYCAsur has secured a contract with a
large distributor of cochineal in Germany. Over the next
five years, CYCAsur projects that exports will reach a
total of 9,150 kg and bring in US$136,845.
This
cash will boost the average yearly income of the cochineal
insect producers by as much as 20%. In real terms, workers'
annual income will increase from around US$1,100 to US$1,300.
Cochineal facts
In ancient Mexico, people used cochineal dye to pay taxes
to ruling tribes.
With
the Spanish colonisation of the new world, the valuable
insects, as well as the knowledge of how to use them to
produce cochineal, were shipped back to the Canary Islands,
which were the prosperous crossroads on the trade route
between the old and new worlds.
The
cochineal industry transformed the economy of the islands
(Tenerife, Gran Canaria, La Palma and Lanzarote). Between
1860 and 1878, cochineal accounted for 90% of the export
revenue of Tenerife.
Raising
and processing cochineal insects is economically profitable
and ecologically beneficial. Virtually no pests or diseases
affect the insects, and the cacti on which they live can
grow in the poorest of land; little, if any fertilisers
or pesticides are needed. The cacti, when planted in the
numbers needed for commercial cochineal production, also
prevent soil erosion.
Cochineal
is used as a natural dye and colouring for foods and other
products, such as yoghurt, sausage, sweets, cosmetics
and drugs.
Large-scale cultivation of cacti provides a 'host' for
the cochineal insects and prevents soil erosion from wind.
The white area on the cactus leaves are clusters of the
insects, ripe for harvesting and processing.
The insects are carefully brushed from the cactus leaves,
spread on trays and put out in the sun to die. It takes
70,000 insects to make one pound of cochineal dye.
Separating foreign debris from dried cochineal insects.
Harvested cochineal insects ready for export to Germany.
Business
boost for youth
In
Peru, an organization the helps young people set up their
own businesses has received its largest ever ECLOF loan.
Last
December, the Comprehensive Development Association [Colectivo
Integral de Desarrollo (CID)] took out its latest ECLOF
loan for US$25,000. Together with US$43,000 from its own
revolving fund, CID is using the money to provide seed
capital for 248 young entrepreneurs. The average loan
made so far has been for US$800.
Becoming
urban
Since the 1950s, Peru has undergone a process of urbanisation.
Today, approximately 70% of the population live in cities
and marginalized urban areas. The formal employment sector
has been able to absorb only a small fraction of those
who have migrated from the countryside. People unable
to find work have been forced to develop their own small-scale
businesses in order to make any kind of living.
At
present, around two million small and medium size businesses
exist in the urban areas of Peru. They provide work for
about 75% of the labour force and, in poor urban areas,
account for as much as 81.5% of production, trade and
service activities.
Young
people
According to UNICEF, only 37% of young people in Peru
between the ages of 15 and 30 have completed secondary
studies. Half of all youngsters in the country are under-employed;
a further 10% are unemployed. Almost two thirds of young
people with jobs are either unskilled or domestic labourers.
The
small and medium sized business sector has become one
of the main pillars not only of the Peruvian economy in
general, but also for the youth segment in particular.
Young people set up one in five of the approximately 280,000
new small-scale businesses created in Peru every year.
CID
Since its creation in 1990, CID has become an established
institution and now has offices in five areas of the country.
Two years ago, CID began a Youth Training Programme for
young entrepreneurs. Achievements so far include:
Dreaming
Since 1995, CID has networked with local and national
institutions, international non-governmental organizations
and other support institutions. The association takes
part in a national youth small-scale contest called "Make
Your Business Dream Come True” (Haz Realidad tu
Negocio).
CID
also broadcasts a weekly radio programme with the same
title, where business ideas, young people’s experiences
and sources of available support are discussed.
Partners
CID and ECLOF Peru became partners two and a half years
ago. At that time, ECLOF Peru granted CID a loan of US$4,000.
The money went into a revolving fund for loans to youth
entrepreneurs, up to a maximum of US$1,500. CID offers
youth entrepreneurs loans in increasing increments, or
'credit steps', rather than one large sum.
By
November 2002, CID had taken out a further four ECLOF
loans totalling US$19,000. It used the money to expand
its revolving fund. CID had also become an institutional
member of ECLOF Peru.
Now,
with last December's ECLOF loan, CID is continuing to
provide essential support to youngsters who would otherwise
stand little chance of earning a living and securing a
decent future for themselves.
William Meza, 22, from Huancayo got his first loan equivalent
to US$ 1,000 to invest in his advertising business where
he could put his computer and designing talents to work.
Maria Morino is 18 and comes from Comas in Lima Province.
She used her ECLOF loan to finance what she enjoys doing
most - making clothes and candles. Maria is happy that
she now also makes money!
Determination
in Dominica
In
the early 1950s, when the then-dictator of the Dominican
Republic, Rafael Trujillo, closed all the country's public
schools as part of his tyrannical strategy to subjugate
and marginalise the people of this small Caribbean nation,
three local churches decided they must act.
In
1955, the Dominican Evangelical Church, in collaboration
with the Presbyterian and Free Methodist Churches, decided
to provide education for children from their congregations
in the rural town of San Cristobol, a 15-minute drive from
the capital of Santo Domingo. So began the Benefactor School,
as the new institution was known.
The
need for educational facilities in the area was so great
that the school soon opened its doors to the whole community.
Seven
years later, and with the dictator gone, the school changed
its name to The Alberto C. Abreu School, in memory of a
Presbyterian pastor and opposition leader who had been assassinated
while trying to gain access to an embassy in order to claim
political asylum.
Emmanuel
The school closed in 1974 but, in response to the community's
need for a higher quality of education than the public schools
provided, the congregation reopened its institution in 1976
as the Emmanuel Evangelical School. It has since gained
a reputation for providing high quality education with a
curriculum that includes the building of moral character
and the all-round development of students, as well as the
strengthening of ties between church and community.
San
Cristobol
San Cristobol is poor. Around 41% of the active population
own their own small businesses and about 33% work in the
informal sector. The unemployment rate is 28%.
Some
90% of students at Emmanuel Evangelical School come from
families officially designated as "low income".
Many
people in San Cristobol, as in most poor communities throughout
the developing world, prefer to make sacrifices and send
their children to private schools rather than to low cost
public schools. Private schools are less crowded and can
educate and support students more effectively. They also
provide for the development that students need in order
to become constructive members of their society.
Community
support
Emmanuel school maintains a scholarship programme for the
children of the school's teaching and administrative staff,
as well as for the poorest families in the community.
It
also supports the local church and a number of community
service programmes including the volunteer fire brigade,
civil defence, day care centres and the Dominican Red Cross.
ECLOF
loans
Over the years, the school has used ECLOF Dominican Republic
loans on seven occasions to help finance its expansion and
development programmes, and has always repaid its debts
in full and on time.
Last
December, the school received its latest ECLOF loan of US$30,769
to build and equip three new classrooms, and itself contributed
over US$14,000 to the total cost of the project.
Born out of oppression, the Emmanuel Evangelical School
shows what can be done when people decide they will not
let others dictate how they should live.
New
Horizons