Written by Greg Paul
As I shared with you about a month ago in ‘a plan emerges’, we have identified a strategic path to the fulfillment of all objectives here in Peru… What have we done over the course of the last month to implement that plan?
Efforts have been very much focused on gathering data and resources, and identifying short and medium term opportunities. To that end we have:
- Drafted and finalised the Constitution of the Association
- Developed the initial business plan to communicate the proposal to all potential stakeholders
- Identified the Associations initial key participants
- Provisionally identified, but still awaiting confirmation of, the funding required to establish the operation (approx. $15,000)
- Provisionally identified phase 2 funding to springboard multiple product lines to international markets (approx. $200k)
- Consolidated the supply chain for the initial product lines of crystal salt
- Built relationships with key stakeholders in other products lines and opportunities (cacao, coffee, Moringa)
- Developed intercontinental relationships with other indigenous community groups in other parts of the world desirous of engaging the same metric
- Identified and secured an initial facility within the village at which the many product lines proposed can be processed
- Identified two key people to help develop the operation and finalised the arrangements for their indefinite relocation to the village
- Secured a supply of Moringa seeds to kick start a Moringa operation which can begin to bear fruit in as little as 9 months’ time
- Built a strong relationship with the local Beekeepers Association to develop a range of honey products (here in Aguano Muyuna there is a small bee, with no sting, which produces a type of honey with highly advanced health and healing effects, not unlike Manuka). As an aside, one of the members of the Beekeepers Association is a healer who heals with bees… using a small box with holes in it which is placed on an affected area of the body in order that the bees are able to sting specific points… the technique has a successful track record of healing all kind of ailments, from arthritis to a multitude of skin conditions and muscular problems.
We now look set to form the Association which will steward this initiative within the next 3 weeks –all that remains to happen before we effect the formation is to have the founding documents professionally reviewed and translated into Spanish.
So all in all progress is good – we won’t quite meet our initial target of being in full production by the end of July, but we should only be a couple of weeks off that. Once this first step has been grounded (and we have built a solid team around the enterprise efforts), the fruits of the enterprise efforts will begin to feed into the plethora of village projects and initiatives that we have already identified and to a large extent prioritised.
Or at least that’s the idea! More to come soon
If you have an entrepreneurial spirit (and the Midas touch when it comes to business development) and would like to explore the possibility of applying your talents to facilitating the growth and success of this one-of-a-kind non-profit enterprise development initiative, please contact us…
Originally posted @ New Earth Community
