Seed Money Competition (Concurso Capital Semilla)

SOLAC decided to carry out an additional activity as part of the microfinance project, the Seed Money Competition (Concurso Capital Semilla). The purpose of this competition was to give funding to the most creative entrepreneurial ideas. The competition was only open to the beneficiaries of the microfinance programme, and those who wished to participate had to fill out a questionnaire where they evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of their existing business as well as proposed a new idea to improve their business in a substantial way (or to suggest a new business idea they wanted to implement). SOLAC made it very clear to the participants that the purpose of the competition was to fund ideas that would generate a significant change in the current situation of their economic activity. The competition would not approve ideas that included merchandise or any other investment that could be implemented with a loan from the microfinance project. A total of twelve people participated from the three communities.

After evaluating the proposals, SOLAC decided to interview some of the participants who seemed to have the most interesting ideas. A week after the participants gave in the proposals, SOLAC announced the three winners at the end of the fashion show. By coincidence, all three winners were from the same ASOL, Unidos para el Desarrollo, in Santa Isabel. One of winners was Emilia Huincho, the secretary from the ASOL who makes clothing and asked for a sewing machine she had needed for a very long time. That machine would allow her to modernise her merchandise and therefore get more orders from local factories. Another winner was Zarella Coveñas the treasurer of the ASOL who has a food delivery business. Zarella prepares food from her house for teachers at local schools nearby, as well as for construction workers who come to Alto Perú for the day. She had been receiving several very large orders from the schools (for 25 people instead of 5 to 10 people) but was unable to deliver because of the size and quality of her equipment. She asked for professional kitchen equipment. The third winner was Mary Gutierrez, a member of the ASOL who used to sell snacks and sodas from a mobile cart. Mary wanted to set up a small café where she would continue to sell snacks and sodas, as well as juices and cakes.

Each winner was assigned to one of the project organisers to go shopping for the materials they needed to implement their idea. An agreement was also signed by each one of them and by SOLAC, stating that the winners would use the materials bought to make their business grow, and that they would report to SOLAC on a regular basis to inform them about the development of their business with the new equipments for a period of three months. The agreement also stated that SOLAC was committed to follow each participant with their new equipment and to assist them in anything they needed. All the equipment was bought on the first week of December for the three participants. SOLAC is very happy about the follow-up of the winners and is looking forward to see the development of their businesses thanks to these new investments.