Are you looking for Forever Flowers 2 - Extending into the Community, our 2021 Forever Flowers Initiative? If so, follow this link: Forever Flowers 2.
Flowers that Last Forever
As you are probably aware, the Santiago Partnership seeks to transform the lives of at risk children and their families as well as serve underpriviliged communities in Ecuador, South America. It is with this continued vision that we present to you our next endeavor: Forever Flowers. We are in need of your support in providing ONE-TIME DONATIONS between now and December 31st, 2020 to help us in empowering our Ecuadorian leadership through a flower farm that will help to ensure the sustainability of the amazing project in Cayambe over the long-term. Please continue reading on to learn more or if you are already very familiar with the Santiago Partnership ministries in Cayambe, Ecuador, then you can skip ahead to where it says "The Problem."
Enter: Rolando Escola, a hard working Kichwa man who comes from humble origins. He grew up on a farm having very little, in the rural town of Zuleta.
Unfortunately, this is the case for many Kichwa throughout the Ecuadorian highlands, even though they are the largest indigenous group in Ecuador. Many Kichwa try to get by in their rural settings growing simple cash crops like onions or potatoes. When you do find them in the cities, they are often working some of the most difficult jobs, hardly making enough to provide for their families.
At his young age of 36, Rolando has flipped the script on this narrative. His driven personality and desire to make the world a better place has brought him out of his impoverished upbringing to find success. He was the first in his family to graduate from college as he sold items on the street to pay his college bills. He was also the first ever Kichwa man to rise to the level of president of FACE, the foundation that oversees our project.
Now he has led the Santiago Partnership's project in Cayambe, Ecuador since 2014 and we are so incredibly blessed by his leadership.
What we do?
The Santiago Partnership partners with the Evangelical Covenant Church of Ecuador (affectionately known as IPEE, pronounced E-Pay-Ay) to serve the community through three ministries:
1. Home for At Risk Children
The Casa Hogar Emanuel or Home for At Risk Children in Cayambe serves children and their families who have been abondoned, neglected, abused or have been the victims of Human Trafficking. The home is a temporary place for the children as we work hard to reunify the children back with their families after healing has taken place.
2. Medical Clinic
The Centro Medico Emanuel or the Emanuel Medical Center provides a robust package of services including family medicine, women's health, dentistry, physical therapy, counseling, a pharmacy and a laboratory. Additionally, the clinic leads Medical Caravans into indigenous communities in the mountains to serve people who may not otherwise have access to medicine.
3. Community Based Programs
The project serves the surrounding communities through a Public Health program and Prevention and Intervention programs. The Public Health program is an outreach of the Medical Clinic and the latter two serve as an outreach of the ministry of the Casa Hogar at both the community level and with individual families with a goal to prevent the need for children to come to the the Home. They work to keep families unified as opposed to needing to reunify them after the children come to the Home.
Watch this video to learn more about the Santiago Partnership:
Here are some quick facts on what the Santiago Partnership's project in Cayambe has seen success in thus far:
The project in Cayambe started with one employee, Rolando Escola, and has now grown to the current state of having 36 employees on staff as well as receiving some funding from the Ecuadorian government.
Here is a picture of our staff:
The project is so well respected across the country of Ecuador that it now receives Ecuadorian government funding.
The Problem
What we've seen all around the world is that when international projects are dependent upon foreign aid, they just don't last in the long-term.
We, the Santiago Partnership (the U.S. based 501c3 nonprofit organization), realize it's time to get out of the way and allow Rolando and his team to lead this project into the future. The Santiago Partnership's goals from when we started out in 2014 were to: 1. Open the Medical Clinic (check!) 2. Open the Home for At Risk Children (check!) and 3. Help the project to become self-sustainable. We don't want the story of the project in Cayambe to become one of those stories of an international project which was great while it lasted but it just didn't last.
The Solution
Our goal from the beginning has always been self-sustainability for the project but since we were starting from scratch, we felt it was important to develop the ministries first. That said, Rolando and his team have always been working toward self-sustainability as you can see how the percentage of the project's budget has been sustained by funds within Ecuador and how that percentage has grown over the years:
But now we would like to take a bigger step...
Enter: the Forever Flowers initiative and the Alstroemeria flower
As many of you know, the area of Cayambe is known for its production and export of roses all around the world. Unfortunately, the rose is a very fragile flower, requires a lot of labor and due to the competition of all of the large rose plantations in the area, the margin that is made on their sale is very little. We don't want to try to compete with the big boys!!
Conversely, the Alstroemeria flower, also known as the Lily of the Incas, is a hardier flower that isn't as susceptible to disease and requires much less labor to cultivate, thus driving the cost of production down. It's also a flower that we can start with a small production and sell locally and grow into a large business, hopefully, eventually for international export as the Alstroemeria Flower goes perfectly in the rose boquet.
Our business model will be to start small, produce high quality flowers, and then teach others to grow the Alstroemeria flower as well so that way we can produce more product together to be able to sell at higher quantities. After we establish a revenue stream with only domestic sales, then we will look to convert our flower into an international product.
(Potential land for future flower farm)
How You Can Help
Our goal for this campaign is to raise $98,800 for the land and startup costs for this social enterprise.
If we only receive the $58,000 needed for the direct start-up costs, we can move forward with this project. However, ideally, we would like to raise the full $98,800 to purchase the land as well so that we will not have to rent land which will lower our margin income.
Donations will be accepted in any amount but only through the end of the year (ends at midnight on December 31st) and all donations are tax-deductible for the United States taxes. And you can give with confidence knowing our history and reputation that comes through on our high rating on Guidestar.com as well as our very low U.S. administrative costs of 6%.
If you give in these amounts, you will be thanked through a specific reward for your donation:
Please help us empower our Ecuadorian leadership through this Flower Farm Social Enterprise as we want to see family reunifications like these that will continue to take place forever.
ALSO PLEASE SHARE OUR CAMPAIGN WITH YOUR FRIENDS
