Productividad y Vivienda is the area of Proyecto Horizonte that promotes the local economy and supports local enterprises, aiming to stimulate growth, creating jobs and improving living conditions. In previous years, the main focus has been the women’s group Tantakuna (which means ´together´in Quechua). This group focused on three areas: artisan workshop, a bakery, and kiosks next to the school selling snacks. In addition the women could join English and computer classes.
The approach of Productividad y Vivienda is based on the concept of motivating the local residents, training them and then guiding them in small steps to self sufficiency: the women producing and selling artisan products, relied heavily on Johan and Anne from Proyecto Horizonte to sell their products abroad via the online shop. Now that sales have been established and exporting products became a routine, the objective is to to hand over more responsibility to manage the group to the women. Going foreard they shall organize their training in areas like business management, internal leadership, administration.
The groups running the kiosks are, compared to previous years, almost independent of Proyecto Horizonte.
This year we would like to open up to other local microenterprise groups and offer business guidance to improve productivity and increase income. Another plan for 2013 is to create a directory of products and services for the community of Ushpa-Ushpa, as the only communication in place currently is word of mouth. This way, when people in the community need a product or service, they might even be able to find the support locally. This would be a faster alternative than finding someone in the city and the leakage of money out of the local economy would be reduced.
Another area which is covered by Productividad y Vivienda is helping people improve housing and living conditions. In the past we have had help from organisations such as SODIS, which provided an architecht to give households planning, quotes and microloans to build toilets in homes. However, so far, the residents prioritized other work, such as walls around their houses, over toilets.
We need to work harder and be more creative to change the priorities
One of the key items for success is to have sufficient funds to help the start-up companies and to provide them with training, materials, equipment and expertise, is capital. We have steered clear of offering microloans to facilitate construction as there are enough micro lenders available to borrowers. We prefer that people get creative rent or share tools and products rather than acquiring them with a loan. Another way of promoting housing improvement without bearing large risks is being the middle man and facilitate communication between people seeking help with construction and organisations offering financial and architechtural asistance.
In summary, we expect that 2013 will see a lot of improvements in the area of Productividad y Vivienda; more independence to the women of Tantakuna, more communication between local enterprises and new support and developments for housing improvements.
