Success Stories
Developing countries where the Walleighs have lived or visited have entrepreneurial spirit just as developed countries do. These entrepreneurs have many more challenges to face in their small businesses, in urban areas and especially in rural regions. TechnoServe is helping farmers become entrepreneurs in operating as cash-crop businesses and not just relying on subsistence living. Sometimes TechnoServe works with agricultural processors (e.g., grain mills) to enable hundreds of smallholder farmers to efficiently process their crops. Sometimes it links cooperatives to markets. And TechnoServe is definitely assisting urban entrepreneurs to expand their horizons. It is this entrepreneurial spirit in Africa and Latin America that is the foundation for hope and excitement for the future.
Haiti Success: Collaborative Haiti Hope Project’s Goal to Help 25,000 Mango Farmers
In October 2011, Rick accompanied TechnoServe senior executives and several board members on a trip to Haiti to visit the Haiti Hope Project. The pictures are his, though the story below is from the TechnoServe website at http://www.technoserve.org/our-work. The...
Peru Successes: Cris Vida’s Bottled Water Expanded its Production
The Cris Vida “natural” mineral water processing and bottling plant was located on the edge of San Marcos, Peru. Owner Eduardo had already built this facility and been selling large bottles of water to a few “corporate” customers. However, he told his visitors that...
Peru Successes: New Abattoir to Process Guinea Pigs as Specialty Food
Most special Peruvian feasts include dishes made with guinea pig, or Cuy. This is traditional not only in Peru but among émigrés in the U.S. Previous to TechnoServe's support, eleven families in El Huayo (over 1 hour from Cajamarca) had been breeding Cuy for local...
Peru Successes: Clarita’s Mix Built New Mill
Clarita’s Mix, a cereal mill owned by a farmers’ cooperative is in the San Marcos area about 45 minutes outside of Cajamarca, Peru. The original co-op was started years earlier by Caritas (an international NGO) to mill, package and sell barley, wheat and quinoa...
El Salvador Successes: Developing Cheese for Export & In-Country Markets
In collaboration with a major Salvadorean bank, TechnoServe began recruiting qualified dairy processors to create new products and markets while maintaining relationships with current small wholesalers or stores. Two key dairy associations (Proleche and Asleche)...
Honduras Successes: Ancient Indian Cocoa Grafted to Modern Cocoa
A major challenge for Honduras to move nearly 50% of its population out of poverty, is to increase its competitiveness in key areas while diversifying into other markets where it can leverage competitive advantages. Established only in 2003, TechnoServe Honduras is...
Nicaragua Successes: Collaboration for Dairy Cows
In May 2008, Rick and Wendy visited the TechnoServe-Nicaragua office where they learned about the Dairy Program operated in collaboration with CARE and UNAN Leon (Universidad Nacional de Autonoma aka National University of Independence, in Leon, Nicaragua). CARE was...
Kenya Successes: Subsistence to Substance to Business Success for Small Banana Farmers & Traders
Many of Kenya’s central and eastern rural poor have a few banana trees in their yards. But despite Kenya’s large overall banana crop, farmers are virtually unconnected to urban wholesalers, retailers, and consumers in cities like Nairobi, Kisumu or Mombasa.* These...
Kenya Successes: Prime Coffee-Growing Region Now Supplies Worldclass Premium Coffee
Across Africa and Latin America, TechnoServe works with farmers to sustainably improve the quality and quantity of the coffee they produce.* It helps link small-scale farmers to specialty coffee buyers who pay a premium for their high-quality beans. The higher incomes...
Kenya Successes: TechnoServe Organized Small-Scale Dairy Farms for Large-Scale Impact
Kenyans drink a lot of milk. This tradition is probably derived from tribal culture—particularly the Maasai tribe--where cows represent wealth. However, the vast majority of dairy farmers own less than ten cows, each of which typically produces ten gallons of milk...
Kenya Successes: Aspen Orchards & Dairies
Wendy and Rick met with this participant who was definitely making progress in TechnoServe's Upscaling program. Starting in 2003 in his home, Joseph Njer’s growth-oriented yoghurt processing business by 2007 was on a US$170,000 run-rate for annual turnover. The...
Kenya Successes: Canan Garden “Upscales” Its Honey Products
A pharmacist and his wife successfully ran Neema Pharmacy and Chemists in Embu, a large central Kenyan city surrounded by farms. The wife had grown up in a nearby farming village and saw how difficult some of her neighbors’ lives were, particularly grandparents...