Career Services
IR/PS Student Project Brings Hope - One Loaf of Bread at a Time
Deana Gullo, a first year graduate student at IR/PS, recently returned from a one week trip to Guatemala where she visited Beyond Poverty projects in San Jose Mas Allas and Las Marias. These communities are creating a bakery that will provide immediate income for current members and a future fund to provide assistance to other community members. “We are focusing on economic development; working with co-ops to develop microenterprises,” explained Deana.
These communities have recently experienced tremendous loss of homes due to windstorms. Deana saw the destruction first hand, but also saw the hope that came from the community coming together. They had the bakery up and going within a couple of days of the storm and were taking orders and providing warm bread to community members hard at work putting their homes back together.
In the future the bakery is looking to expand demand by delivering bread to outside communities. Beyond Poverty is working on getting a truck for the bakery which could double as a source of local transportation and delivery truck. Thanks to a few generous donors they have enough for a down payment and hope to finance the rest and pay it off as quickly as possible. This summer Deana will go to San Jose Mas Allas to make more connections and extend the project. She is looking forward to making use of the skills she has gained at IR/PS, specifically through the microfinance and program management courses.
Contact Deana Gullo beyondpoverty@gmail.com
Beyond poverty website: www.ihcenter.org/groups/beyondpoverty.html
Pictures from the trip: http://picasaweb.google.com/beyondpoverty/Jantrip2008
