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Leticia is a rural town depending of the township of Pasacaballos, suburb of Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. It is located by Canal del Dique, a channel connecting the Magdalena River and the Cartagena Bay on the Colombian north coast. Leticia is composedof 74 families with 350 inhabitants, whowere deeply affected by two recent disasters.
The first one was the bankruptcy of a shrimp farming company which was providing jobs to a large part of the population.Due to international competition the company drastically reduced its staff, leaving the inhabitants of Leticia without a steady income.
The second one was due to La Niña phenomenon 2010-2011 which flooded a wide portionof the area and devastated homes and crops.
Our Club helped this community in times of emergency, ( during 2011, 2012 and 2013) to improve home and school water provision by installing two pumps, called for government assistance in several fields, raisedfunds to rebuild the church and builda central park for community interaction with active community participation in the project. The government recently finished the construction of the barrier to avoid future flooding.
2.What community needs have been identified? If the activity is a scholarship, enter "N/A".
Family revenues are highly unstable and malnutrition and poverty affect the population, children specially. According to national statistics (DANE 2010), around 56% of the rural communities of Canal del Dique have Unsatisfied Basic Needs (UBN). Our Rotary Club Cartagena de Indias(RCCI)is committed in helping the community regain a source of income A group of women from the village were making a living selling eggs until all their hens were killed in the flood. They willlike now to rebuild their business in a sustainable commercial scale. At the same time food supply to feed the hens will stabilize and improve local crop production starting to revive home lands soils and crops. A small amount of egg production will be donated to the school restaurant.
2. How are these needs currently being addressed with local resources and/or government agencies, NGOs, etc.?
If the activity is a scholarship, enter "N/A".
The National Government and the Cartagena city Government are developing several programs to alleviate poverty. Cartagena however, has a vast poor population: around 33% of the population is considered in poverty, and 6% in extreme poverty (according to national statistics DANE, 2012). Available resources of course are not enough to effectively and rapidly end this situation. Several NGOs work with the communities of the Canal del Dique, including the town of Leticia, providing for example technical agricultural assistance and food security programs. One of the NGOs most present in the area is the Corporacion Desarrollo y Paz del Canal del Dique (Development and Peace Foundation for the Canal del Dique), will be our cooperating organization in this project. Another ONG is Promotora del Canal del Dique. All of them have scarce resources to rebuild productive activities. Thus all help possible is welcomed.
Summarize the proposed activity(ies) in 250 words or less, including the need it will address, the intended beneficiary(ies), and the potential benefits to the community
The Project
The Club has worked with the community a sustainable project comprising 2000 laying hens, which would benefit the community's subsistence agriculture stimulating local economy to produce farm eggs that sell for a better price on the market. A cooperative business will be created to manage the hen-house, and be the owner of the infrastructure. They will be responsible for operation and maintenance, and technical assistance will be provided during the first cycle of hens.
The project is planned in three steps:
First, once the grant from IRF is approved, the cooperative will be legalized Following capex project management, the seed capital provided from the grant will be invested.
Second, during the following 15 month-period, the Club will with the Development and Peace Foundation for the Canal del Diquesupervise closely aspects related to management, commercialization, accounting, information systems and technical assistance along with the local partners
Third,at the end of the first laying hens cycle, the clubwill continue to accompany the project every three months in which the cooperative will restart a new lot of laying hens.
As for the community's commitments, they will include: supplying the land to build the sheds on, the staff, the growing of spinach, rice, corn, pumpkin, etc. to complement processed food, putting asidepart of the budget for replacement of the hens, and the maintenance of the facilities.
Project Goals
The project has three goals:
1. To contribute inreducing malnutrition for 90 children of the community by supplying eggs to the school,5 days a week during 24 months.
2. To provide qualification and additional employment to the community, as well as leadership, team work and conflict resolution skills.
3. To promote productive cooperation within the local economy by means of
A) Utilizing excess local agricultural production to feed the hens, and introduction of a marketing plan to sell free-range eggs called "Huevos de Rancho".
B) Encouraging production of organic fertilizer, for own use and for external sale
C) Encouraging cooperation amongst other local producers to create economies of scale to lower marketing costs for Leticia's businesses.
D) To promote a Community Development Rotary Group to grow leadership, team work and conflict resolution in agreement with the School of Social Work from Cartagena University.
The production goals of the project are:
• At the end of first quarter of business operation, once the facilities are built, monthly operational costs shouldbe covered. By the end of sixth month, the cooperative will have sufficient additional funds to continue operation on its own. After 15 months of operation, the project will be able to restore hens and supplies to start a new cycle.
• To establish an ongoing cycle of production of 15 months under normal conditions, to cover the aforementioned costs and achieve a small surplus by encouraging marketing of excess organic fertilizer. This will guarantee the financial sustainability of the project, after the contribution of theseed capital from the matching grant.
Sustainability
The cooperative will be monitored by our club and partners during a 20 month period until tit establish commercial relationships with other development agencies like Cemprende, a special fund from the Cartagena Chamber of Commerce and UNDP, and FondoEmprender, another funding program from the SENA (government organization) in order to have advise and special credit loans for small business.
The Project monitoring and evaluation will include
1. Planning the information system from Project Committee FRCCI with the cooperative and the Development, Peace Foundation for Canal del Dique and the Leticia community.
2. Budget and financial monitoring will be developed at the end of each step, and every six months from Project Committee FRCCI with the cooperative and the Development and Peace Foundation for Canal del Dique and the community cooperative during the three project steps. An annual report will be sent annually to international partners and IRF
3. Community Project goals monitoring on child nutrition, direct and indirect employment generation, hours of training, linking demand to local agricultural suppliers and number of people attending meetings and projects in team work, conflict resolution and productive planning will be conducted every six months from RCCI Project Committee and share with cooperative and Leticia community. An annual report will be sent annually to International Partners and IRF.
4. Budget follow up execution and Activities Planned will be monitored every three months by RCCI Project Committee and Development and Peace Foundation for Canal del Dique and the cooperative associates and operational plans Once a year will be sent to International P artners and IRF.
5. Agreements with Universidad de Cartagena, Development and Peace Foundation, SENA, Promotora del Canal del Dique and Leticia Community will be evaluated by stakeholders every year.
6. A synthesis of processes report will be sent with a community evaluation at the end of the project.
Before Project start the community of Leticia involved in the Project are being trained by the National Apprenticeship Service (SENA) in agreement with our Rotary Club Cartagena de Indias on technical and management skills with the aim of improving the overall performance of the laying hens project. Simultaneously, the community has been working in restoring the old hen house in accordance with the new procedures and are being practicing what training is about.
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