Micro-enterprise Development

At Yachana Technical High School students are learning to be entrepreneurs capable of identifying needs and creating economic solutions for themselves, their families and their communities.  In addition to the work that they do in the micro-enterprise productive area, they are learning all aspects of how a company is created and managed.  Students are assigned roles as managers and work together to make decisions about the mission and vision of the organizations they create.  They formulate objectives, manage production, inventories and accounting and are responsible for running a profitable business.  Any proceeds generated by the sale of their products are reinvested into the education program at the school.
 
Thanks to an organization called Achievers International, Yachana Technical High School has been paired with a school in the UK and our students are now exporting the handicrafts they make for distribution through the other school’s micro-enterprise program.  This is giving all of the participating students a more global perspective and experience by doing business in another culture and language.
 
Another important initiative of the Foundation has been to provide clean drinking water through a program to make available an affordable filtration system to families and organizations throughout the country.  Thousands of people have benefited over the years and the assembly and distribution of these systems continues to be an important component of the micro-enterprise program at the school.  In addition to the enterprise managed by the students, the Foundation is now working closely with the Ministry of Education to supply filters to a large number schools so that hundreds of students have safe water to drink.  With the support of organizations like Rotary International and individual donors, we will continue on our mission to make the filters available to all rural schools in Ecuador.  

For a tax-deductible donation of $200 to Yachana Foundation USA, you can provide five water filtration systems to a rural school in Ecuador and make clean water available to hundreds of school children.

As Yachana strives to achieve sustainability, micro-enterprise becomes a key component of our success.  By working with several government ministries including the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Environment in addition to municipal and provincial government officials, we are also supplying low energy computers and other products like solar panels with rechargeable lamps and low cost eyeglasses to people living at the base of the economic pyramid.  The distribution of these products also provides solutions for schools and organizations working in other rural areas of Ecuador.  Through product sales, business opportunities are created for both community members and Yachana students alike.