Arapal Cebu Livelihood Center
Background
Arapal is a community in Bogo, Cebu situated in the Arapal Hills of that place. The community is home to many farmers and locals who belong to the marginalized, and underprivileged in society. The daily routine of people there is to fish, farm, go home and get drunk. The community does not have the resources, nor the skills to become a self-sustaining community. Most of them would be dependent on the help that is given to them which sometimes doesn't arrive.
The mission of Arapal Livelihood Center is to be able to provide opportunities to the local community and to empower them to be self-sustaining. The vision is to give livelihood to the community and break the cycle of dependency. This center aims to be able to create a system that can be duplicated to other places with the same type of community - to be able to provide the resources and the training that they need in order for them to have better opportunities and, hopefully, alleviate them from poverty.
Rationale
The rationale for the center stems from these two factors:
Self-sustainability.
As the saying goes, if you give a man a fish he can eat for a day, but if you teach him how to fish, he can eat for a lifetime. The main focus of the center is to teach the community to break away from the cycle of poverty and desire to become self-sustaining. We realize that, sometimes people want this but they just do not know how. The center will make sure that they are taught and that they are mentored to make sure that they can, indeed, be self-sustaining.
Community Development.
Probably one of the hardest parts of this mission is to develop the community. Developing is not only limited to how much income they are making but making sure that their mindset is changed. One of my favorite verses in the Bible is in Romans 12:2, which says, "Do not conform to the standards of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind". No person can be developed unless the change starts in his mind. By providing training and one-on-one mentoring sessions, the center hopes to change the way they think - from a poverty mindset to a success mindset.
Description of Products
The center supplies naturally grown raised pork, dressed chicken, and quality dairy products such as goat's milk and goat's cheese. It also can supply organically produced herbs, vegetables, and fruits.
To make sure of the sustainability of the center, product development is needed. Innovative products like flavored milk, pastilles, goat's milk soap, etc, will allow the center to have more opportunities for income targeting different consumers, mainly in the city.
Benefits to Stakeholders
The stakeholders are the farmers in the community. The main benefit to them is that, whenever they will have a harvest, they can always go to the center and the center will always buy their produce, as long as it was produced under the center's standard which is natural and organic. Their harvest will be bought by the center at a fair market price.
Another benefit offered to them is free seminars, mainly on how they can better give a good harvest. Whenever there is a project by the government they will be prioritized. Goat milk is also bought at a higher price compared to the market price. This encourages them to produce more.
Value Proposition
Arapal Livelihood Center mainly serves the local community/farmers to make sure that they are given equal opportunities like other big-time farmers. To equip the community with skills that they need in order for them to be successful and, soon, become self-sustaining breaking the cycle of poverty and dependency.
posted by 1920 Solutions at 6:34 AM
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