Income Generation for Mis Huellitas Childcare Center

Summary

 I am an intern at Mis Huellitas Centro Infantil, a daycare center in a residential area of Cochabamba. Currently they serve around 80 children, for whom the center is like a second home in which they receive food, support, and love that they may or may not at their actual home. The center currently produces and sells bread for income generation, in an attempt to become financially self-sustaining. My project goal is to up-scale the bread production by acquiring an industrial bread mixer in order to increase income generation. The project was conceptualized by the staff members, who all resoundingly recognized the need for a dough mixer in order to facilitate and increase bread production. The long-term benefits of this project include increased income, which will help the Center to eventually become financially self-sustaining, provide the children with more nutritious meals, a more supportive salary for the staff, and more. Mis Huellitas increasing their sale of bread in the neighborhood will also create a better relationship with the surrounding neighborhood.

According to Mis Huellitas’ staff, the organization’s most urgent need is funds. Currently they run on limited resources. The children have no appropriate place to play or eat besides their classrooms. The children’s playground is not big enough for more than five or six children to play on at once, which makes it difficult to allocate time for children to play outside and get physical exercise. The staff members are paid small salaries with no paid vacation or any benefits. While Mis Huellitas is preoccupied with not having enough money, it is more difficult to focus on how best to help the support the children’s development. By up-scaling their income generation project, Mis Huellitas can eventually become financially self-sustaining and expand in the ways they believe will most benefit the children.

The experience the center already has with bread sales will facilitate the scaling up of this project. The bread they make at the center is handmade, free of artificial chemicals, and in my personal opinion, delicious. However, kneading a large quantity of dough by hand both limits the amount of bread that can be made and greatly increases the time it takes to make the bread. Purchasing an industrial bread mixer would give the teachers more time with the center's children, and allow them to make more bread and increase income.

Thank you so much for your collaboration.

In return for your donation, I will send you a personal email thanking you for your help, and keep you updated as well as I can about the project.