11 May 2009

Sao Paolo, Brazil: A senior Italian volunteer has been deploying his commercial expertise in Latin America to help people set their small businesses on the path to success.

Paolo Faberi recently worked with the Brazilian NGO Conexão under UNV’s partnership with Seniores Italia, an Italian organization that sends retired professionals to share their skills abroad.

During his assignment, he worked on a project called ‘Sementes Urbanas’ (‘Urban Seeds’), helping people in Carapicuiba, Sao Paolo, build sales networks for their organic vegetable and houseplants business.

Though the people at Sementes Urbanes were good at vegetable growing techniques, he says, they lacked knowledge of commercial principles. However, they were eager to learn.

“When at the end of my stay, we were able to put together a sales and production plan,” he says, “they were very happy. They felt they could influence market variables and start earning money!”

In summary, according to Mr. Faberi, “the beneficiaries learned the basic notions of running a production company and are now able to switch from ‘amateur’ work to a profitable business.”

While working on this assignment, he was also able to help out at another project, Projecto Oficina, which offers social assistance and work to physically and mentally disabled people. During a visit to Projeto Oficina’s premises he noticed some unused sewing and knitting machines.

The Italian volunteer saw a chance to reuse the knowledge and written reports given to Sementes Urbanas, and adapted it into a training package for the managers at Projeto Oficina. The concept is to use the machinery to restart production of shirts and work uniforms, which should help the disabled people generate more income than the packaging and recycling work they were previously doing.

“The final goal is to come up with practical tips for textile production,” says Mr. Faberi, “a business which I think could now be started up in a very short time.”

Paolo Faberi has a Master’s in Agricultural and Nutritional Sciences, and brought to his assignment more than 20 years of experience with Italian companies in the food sector. He is also a committed volunteer, having carried out 10 similar assignments via UNV and other agencies.

During December 2008, for example, he spent three weeks in Ecuador helping an all-female cooperative market products made from Andean tubers. He feels that both of his recent assignments prove how a volunteer’s skills and experience can leave long-lasting benefits.

“I found that people have good knowledge of how to create good, sound agricultural products, well-grown and without using pesticides,” he comments on his experiences in Latin America. “But afterwards they have little notion of sales techniques, of how to tackle their market, establish prices, build a brand, or to get themselves known on the market.”

Therefore, the professional know-how a volunteer such as Paolo Faberi and others can provide is a useful way turn this problem around, and empower people to take charge of development in their communities.