WOMEN’S BANK AT “La Y de la Laguna”

In an effort to contribute to women’s entrepreneurship, Great Wilderness funded computer-training classes for 13 women, members of the Woman’s Bank at La Y de la Laguna in western Ecuador. The aim of the seminar is to strength women’s skills and business management. The seven-month course covered basic computer operation and progressed to training in accounting software and other business applications.  All thirteen women completed the class with a sense of accomplishment and the tools to participate as key members in the development of their communities.

Inequality is a word that many women around the world are familiar with, and women from la Y de la Laguna in the Choco Western region of Ecuador are not the exception.  In 1996, the first Women Bank was established in this rural area to create opportunities for women through enhanced economic participation and improved socio economic status in their community. Since then, this organization has played a major role in the development of the Women’s economic in this low-income settlement.

But women are aware that the key for their economic improvement requires not only obtaining access to loans, but also it is indispensable to develop more skills, such as computer proficiency and other abilities to build the expertise they need to be successful.

 

FONMSOEAM

On November 2008, Great Wilderness donated funds to allow a group of FONMSOEAM cacao farmers to begin the organic certification process for their product. Certified organic cocoa producers are most likely to obtain better prices than conventional cocoa usually ranging from US$ 100 to US$ 300 per ton.

FONMSOEAM is an organization created in 2000, composed of 400 small-scale cacao farmers living in 25 communities bordering the REMACH in the Esmeraldas province of Ecuador. This area is not only known worldwide for growing the exquisite native Cacao Fino de Aroma (Teobroma cacao), but also for being part of the globally important biodiversity region, the Choco-Manabi conservation corridor. This data comes into sharp contrast when one considers the national statistical analysis that clearly establishes Esmeraldas as the province with the country’s highest deforestation rate of 9,567,5 ha per year. These dramatic socio-economic indicators are also reflected in the dismal state of basic urban infrastructure; 80% of the population does not have access to basic services such as electricity, road, fresh water and hygienic services including waste disposal and is the most depressed region in the Republic of Ecuador.

Although FONMSOEAM is a legally established organization, it hasn’t been able to reach full market potential with it’s cacao production due to deficient organizational capacity, insufficient post harvest infrastructure, inadequate technology, and lack of education. In order to remedy the situation we propose an integrative solution that brings together small-scale farmers, local financial institutions, industry professionals and grass roots conservation organizations in an alternative to unsustainable economic activities such as logging, cattle ranching and annual crops that lead to biodiversity loss without alleviating poverty.

Specific objectives include strengthening FONMSOEAM’s organizational capacity to improve collective distribution and commercialization of raw cacao, improved post-harvest treatment of cacao to receive better prices; community based monitoring of cacao plantations; improve technical assistance; exploitation of sub-products currently discarded; and creation of a national and international market image for environmentally friendly cacao and chocolate products.

BILSA AND GUANDERA BIOLOGICAL STATIONS AND RESERVES

On 2007-2008, Great Wilderness donated funds to Jatun Sacha Foundation to support expansion of their reforestation  program at Bilsa Biological Reserve located within the Mache Chindul Ecological Reserve in Esmeraldas - Ecuador. Same year, we made an additional donation to support land acquisition at Guandera Biological Station. 

 Gunadera Biological Reserve. Ecuador

INTERNSHIPS

On 2009, with general funds from the  "Gunzenhauser-Chapin Fund", Great Wilderness was able to support two internships at FONMSOEAM. In this picture, Amanda Kesner with children from the Mache Chindul Ecological Reserve (REMACH).