The mission of Beyond
Poverty
is to assist economically limited communities achieve their goals to
move beyond poverty through education, economic and infrastructure
projects. We will be working initially in a small community named San
Jose Mas Alla in Guatemala.
I'm happy to say that after months of preparation, training
and hard work the Bakery Project in San Jose Mas Alla is ready to
officially start production and sales! Throughout the month of
August, the bakery project members met to select and prepare
their administrative team, board of directors, sales team and develop
marketing strategies. They have gone out into theirs and nearby
communities to promote the bakery, giving out samples of bread and
doing market surveys. They've had a positive response so far and have
made a profit from their most recent promotional day last week. With
this profit they will cover the costs to have the water hooked up to
their bakery building.
By mid September they will begin to produce and operate
Mondays through Saturday half day to begin. They hope to begin taking
orders from the community and begin promoting the bakery and developing
clients outside of the community. The grade school already wants to
place an ongoing order. They will still have to travel largely by foot
initially to get the bread outside of the community. We are still
brainstorming how to ease the transportation problem. No one yet
has a driver's license. Luckily the road to San Jose Mas Alla was
recently worked on and could be passable by a vehicle without 4 wheel
drive. We'll see if down the line we will have the funds to split the
cost with them for a light pick up.
At this point over the next two months we will be assisting
them with seed money to get production going. The estimate we are
working with is approximately $2500. This will cover the five salaried
employees, raw materials for baking and packaging supplies. Those who
are going out to sell will make a percentage of what they sell as their
wage.
The other component that this project has, to remind you all, is that from their profits, they will be creating a fund to be used for community projects. Both communities of San Jose Mas Alla and Las Marias lack transportation out of their mountain towns, sewage systems, medical services and school beyond grammar school. Most housing is poorly constructed shacks with dirt floors.
The income generated for these thirty individuals and the community funds they will create will be a life line to an improved quality of life for all of the 900 members of both communities.
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Credits
Modified: 2007-09-17