Social Entrepreneurship Contest
Paraguay
In Paraguay, GP Connect launched a contest with the aim of locating and supporting social entrepreneurs. Applicants had to explain their community-based projects and provide reasons as to why their project should be funded. The grand prize was an interest free loan of up to US $10,000.
The contest began with a period of planning and market research. We contacted many organizations and institutions related to micro-credits, investment funding, social work, and academics. These contacts allowed us to have a better understanding of the field in Paraguay and it became a rich database of acquaintances and potential partners with whom we could work in the future.
We created a website - gpconnect-paraguay.org, and promoted our initiative through social media. As the submission deadline approached, we began contacting the media. We went to ABC, the main newspaper of Paraguay, where we were interviewed. Other newspapers (Ultima Hora, UPIU) also picked up the report and published it as well as many other blogs and online news resources. Putting out the news about our contest in the ABC newspaper was the biggest factor that led to participants for our project.
Left One of the participating contestant projects involves filtering water through vases. The porous vases can also be used to water plants and gardens.
Middle Meeting with local townspeople in the area of Filadelfia, Paraguay, to discuss current situation of their communities. Part of the research involves measuring the impact of the projects.
Right Visiting an isolated indigenous community that is receiving vases to filter water
Once the three best projects were selected, we went to visit them to see for ourselves which would be the winner.
Winning project:
In early November, the winner was announced. Her name is Ana Lia Melo who lives in the state of San Pedro some two and a half hours away from the capital, Asuncion. The community-based project involves raising egg-laying chickens for commercial purposes. It is designed to address the issues of malnutrition and poverty. Anna Lia requested and received a loan of $5,000.
The participants and program organizer are all from the same community. Ana Lia identified a need in her community, came up with an innovative approach to deal with the issue, and saw an opportunity in GP Connect!’s contest. After winning the contest, Ana Lia immediately went forward with her project. She promoted her initiative in her own community and received answers from 30 eager participants of which 10 were chosen following certain criteria.
On November 4, representatives of GP Connect visited the winner. When we arrived in the community, Ana Lia was meeting with the 10 women who had been selected to be a part of the project. The meeting took the style of a town hall meeting. The ten women participating were all from the community and they looked very eager to learn how to properly raise and take care of chicks that would become hens that lay eggs. The eggs are intended to be used for commercial purposes. Each of the ten women purchased 50 chicks. This is one of strong points of the project; the participants have to invest in their enterprise.
As part of this introductory meeting, a veterinarian who spoke about how to take care of the chicks each lady had received. There was an interactive atmosphere throughout the presentation with the participating ladies raising questions on issues of how to take care of their investment. They asked about diseases, humidity, heat, vaccines, etc. which were properly addressed by the vet.
Empowering Women
All 10 participants are women. Each woman represents a household of approximately 3-5 people. In all, this project would be benefiting a minimum of 30 and up to 50 people if properly implemented. Normally in this area, women stay at home and don’t have much to do while the men are working. But this initiative gives an opportunity for housewives to be a part of the productive process and it empowers them because they are in charge of the entire process. They learn the finer details on how to take care of birds, produce a food and a valuable product, and bring it to the market for commercial purposes.
Conclusion
The important part now will be GP Connect’s consistent follow-up and offering of assistance in logistical issues or other issues that we can help with. We understand that this is a learning process for Ana Lia and, more importantly, for ourselves. This being the pilot project of such an initiative encourages us to be extra careful with our mode of work but also makes us aware that this is a process of trial and error. The lesson we want to learn is to learn from our mistakes and pass onto others best practices from this project.