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Collaboration is so powerful. We have all heard Margaret Mead quoted many times, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Well, I’d like to take this blog to tell you about three people. People just like you and me who decided to put their heads together and change a little piece of the world.
At the tail end of last year one of our partners, Mercy Abraham Imondi from Dharmapuri in India visited Canada. She and I share a common vision and while she was here we got down to business. Mercy’s tenacity and commitment is unbelievable and she is 1,000 percent committed to the people in her community. We talked, learned, laughed and dared to imagine a future with greater and greater impact on lives in rural India. (You can read about Mercy and her work under our “Out of India” category.)
As you might imagine, one of the key factors to success in our model is coming up with market based ideas that are well designed and cost effective so that they will be of interest to many customers. To do that we need the input of many people. Enter Ranee Lee of raneeleedesign.com. Ranee is an accomplished commercial designer and educator who lends her design services pro bono to ZOË
Customer feedback told us that we needed a competitive summer product, something not too expensive, fun and that would be good for golf tournaments, trade shows, employee picnics, etc… Mercy and I had been collaborating and while she was here, she, Ranee and I met for a design meeting. The initial sample turned into a product concept that we all thought would be a great fit and the numbers lined up. Now all we needed was client feedback, enter Travis Gardiner and Alexandra Garant of CA Source.
 CA Source purchased the recycled paper pens that Mercy’s team makes last year as one of their trade show giveaways and we had planned a meeting during Mercy’s visit. We decided to get their feedback on the lunch bag concept, largely because Travis had previously mentioned that this would be an item of interest. It was such a valuable conversation, and their input helped shape the final product. So much so that we are happy to share that the lunch bag will be one of their trade show gifts this year!
Much of what we have done to date has been accomplished just like this. All it takes is an organization like CA Source to share their creativity and experience over a coffee and powerful things happen.
So what can a village business leader, a Canadian social entrepreneur, a commercial product designer and marketing people at an accounting services firm accomplish if they put their heads together? The best answers come from the women in the villages and their families.
This year we are working with several organizations on some pretty big village changing initiatives, stay tuned for the updates AND give us a call if you have a half hour or so to roll up your sleeves on a project. Ask any of us, you will have the time of your life.
This year has been one of fortifying the foundation of our work, deepening the impact, and growing participation in the movement. Read on for a year end glimpse into some of 2011’s highlights and where our sights are set for 2012!
Fortifying the Foundation
This past year has seen each of our four partners grow in their experience as they have been supplying over 15 products. Each business is making more than one item and growing in their ability to build their businesses in supplying to ZOË and to others.
It is very exciting, and a great example of enhanced capacity to do business is with our friends in Guatemala. Recently they made their first shipment this year directly to ZOË’s client in Paraguay for their tradeshow without the need for quality control support. This is indeed a big step forward and shows that this team will be able to continue to expand their business.
Deepening the Impact
We are so excited that we have been able to give multiple orders to each partner, helping to make the workflow more consistent for the teams. This is a key part of our focus to ensure that people are working consistently in each business.
We were also able to have a small part in the realization of the dream of the medical clinic in Dharmapuri through income generated and a donation. The ribbon was cut at a ceremony in October this year and this was a key milestone in the life of this community in Dharmapuri. You can read more about it in the archive.
Growing Participation
We saw amazing growth in the movement here in North America as over 32 new companies decided to take the challenge.
There aren’t words to describe the impact of their decisions on the lives of the people working in the communities. It seems like such a small trivial thing to us, an order for 100 portfolios here or 5,000 pens there. We are hard pressed to understand it here, and even at ZOË we often fall into the thinking that we are not doing enough yet.
Fortunately, each time we get an update about a family’s progress hearing how they have invested their income to multiply and extend it’s impact, or a child’s progression to the next grade in school it all comes back into clear focus.
If its real lasting change then the number of people we impact can’t be too small and it can never be too big.
Much More to Do
So the little movement that could has a long way to go. As with all things that are worth doing, we are slowly and surely increasing our impact in a way that will last. Future generations in the villages will look back and know that their mother worked in a village production unit and that this funded their education. They will know that had it not been for this, they might still be working the fields for very little pay and with little opportunity for growth or change. And they will know that people in companies half way around the world played a key role in shaping their future.
In the next year, our sights are set very high because the need and the urgency of the need is very high. We have developed a model together with our partners and we know how to help local leaders establish small businesses. And so now it’s time to grow, to establish rural regional cooperative units that are able to supply very large volumes on contract to companies who would choose to source items like employee uniforms, pens for hotel rooms, or one or two items within their product line from these centres.
There is great potential to create enhanced value for companies in purchasing a staple item like employee store aprons. They could buy them at a competitive price while at the same time help to create a rural regional economy providing dignified employment and a future for thousands of people. This is just one example, the possibilities are only limited by our imaginations and somebody has to supply those aprons.
So stay tuned for some fun new gift and promotional product options, and please do get in touch with us if you would like to share some input, or explore a way in which your organization could get involved.
On November 15th, 45 speakers representing business, charities, and non governmental organizations will be gathering for a day long conference at Algonquin College in Ottawa to explore Corporate and Community Social Responsibility. ZOË Alliance will have the opportunity to be among them.
The theme that will be the common thread throughout the 11 sessions is Creating Shared Value. This idea has been a topic of much dialogue for several years now, with the term “Shared Value” coined by co-authors Michael E. Porter and Mark R. Kramer in their January/February 2011 article entitled Creating Shared Value.
In it they define shared value as: “…policies and operating practices that enhance the competitiveness of a company while simultaneously advancing the economic and social conditions in the communities in which it operates. Shared value creation focuses on identifying and expanding the connections between societal and economic progress.”
Simply put, businesses can pursue economic gain in a way that intentionally creates a positive social impact AND that this is not only a nice to do, as in traditional CSR, but actually a way to achieve even greater business outcomes. It posits that social considerations are core to business decision making and costs, thus challenging conventional business theory that pure profit seeking at the cost of the environment, community, and the social conditions of the people employed produces the best economic outcomes.
Why is this Important?
This is a really important conversation for many reasons, and one in particular. Globally leaders are moving forward, almost as if with one voice, toward a business based approach to addressing gargantuan societal issues such as poverty and environmental preservation. This thinking about the role of charities, NGO’s, government, and business is shaping government policy around the globe, and has far reaching implications for how effectively these organizations can collaborate and their funding models.
As with any conversation that is seeking to address very complicated problems, the answers are never simple. Is it business or charities to the rescue? The answer is yes. Business, NGO’s, Charities, Development Agencies, and Governments all have roles.
Porter and Kramer state at the end of their article that “Not all societal problems can be solved through shared value solutions.” In their article, they stress the value of intentional collaboration between the various entities, each lending their strengths to each particular endeavour.
From our perspective, as a social enterprise that started pursuing a Regenerative Business Model in 2008, we are whole heartedly on board with the reality that business can be profitable, can pursue it’s economic best interest, and can do so in a way that benefits society. Our raison d’être is to make it easy for companies to do this by in essence, creating rural local clusters that can be effective parts of a large companies supply chain, to use the nomenclature of Shared Value.
But as we continue is this dialogue, there is one caution. Beware any strategy that holds up one actor as being the best equipped to solve the world’s ills. It is easier to do this, and it does make for better headlines. Admittedly, it is decidedly more difficult to collaborate across for profit, non profit and governmental organizations. However the reality is, we need each others expertise. And in the extremely difficult situations that many people face around the world, we must find creative solutions, even in the face of extraordinary social costs that cannot be reasonably bourne by business.
It’s a bit like the Aid is Dead argument of a few years ago. Starving people with health issues can’t work, so of course there is room for aid and development to work hand in hand. Similarly, economic drivers are an extremely powerful tool to drive lasting social change. But it’s a rare company that can justify investing resources and training people in the middle of a village that has no access to roads and power without a shared investment by the local government and NGO’s in infrastructure, education and health.
So the answer is in balance and collaboration. In mutual respect and continuing to push the boundaries, leveraging each others strengths. And yes, this next era of CSV, (Creating Shared Value), as an evolution of CSR, (Corporate Social Responsibility), is one of great promise and we are looking forward to what we can accomplish together.
Christian Horizons is the largest government funded provider of support services to adults with disabilities in Ontario. The organization serves over 1,500 families and continually evolves their services to meet the changing needs of the people whom they serve.
Micah Elson is the Program Manager at Ottawa Grow, one of their largest employment solutions programs. One of his responsibilities is to oversee the team that produces the Equitas product line of ZOË Alliance. This month’s blog brings us a glimpse into the goals and larger vision for the work of Grow through an update from Micah.
(To get more background you can find a primer on this project in the December 2010 newsletter)
The Goals of GROW
Employment solutions initiatives began with the dual objectives of helping people develop job skills and supporting them in securing meaningful work in the community. As such our programs were comprised of subsidized businesses and day service programs with a specific focus on skills development.
A key realization has contributed to the evolution of our programming. We still have a strong commitment to helping people develop job skills and securing employment in the community, however our experience in the past few years have brought us face to face with an interesting reality.
The reality is that some people, who had previously been unable to engage in work activities, can be very successful in a workplace setting with some modifications that enable them to participate. We have realized that accommodations for behavioural, physical, and medical needs can create an environment in which almost everyone can contribute in a meaningful way to the success of a business.
We are uniquely positioned to evolve our employment solutions initiatives into self-sustaining businesses that provide working environments that enable people who possess any combination of abilities to participate successfully as part of the work force.
So our goal in the coming years is to create environments that are more than opportunities for training. We will be creating viable ongoing businesses that become long-term employment opportunities for people, and create a model that could be adopted by others. As a result, we will only be pursuing businesses that can be competitive.
We feel that it is very important that we push ourselves to find solutions. It is not enough to settle for a day service program for a portion of the people we serve. It is our responsibility to create meaningful opportunities for as many people as we can to participate.
And these opportunities must be equitable, providing the opportunity to make a good wage in an environment that understands each person’s abilities. Equitable also implies that these are work places and not programs. So there are real work expectations adjusted for ability level, real work for real pay. We want to neutralize factors that would otherwise keep a person who wants to work from being a part of the work force.
The Role of Collaboration
As you can imagine, developing businesses with modified work roles is a challenge. There are many unique considerations in operating such a business that take additional focus and effort. Because of this we see collaboration with partners as an important success factor.
A big piece of our collaboration has been with ZOË Alliance and some stores in the community who sell our items. Every business has to have a sales channel and these collaborations are the only things that enable us to run. Our businesses manufacture products and provide services, so having partners that help create demand for those products and services is a critical part of our business plan.
Vision for the Future
This year we will be evaluating each of our existing businesses to determine if they can be successful. We will be deciding which businesses to exit, and which ones to continue to invest in for growth. For each business we will be identifying the two or three things that we are really good at, for which there is clear market demand, and maximizing that.
In our Ottawa Grow location, our expectation is that we are developing a company that it is sustainable and that will employ about 75 people. We don’t wish to establish too large a centre. Once we have established successful experiences in developing modified working conditions that are realistic and can be a part of a profitable business model, we will then look to work with community partners to expand opportunities.
Our role can then evolve toward enabling other businesses in the community to create realistic work environments by providing supports to the workers and the businesses.
This past Saturday, I attended the Toronto International Microfinance Summit (TIMS). It is a gathering of different types of organizations engaged in fighting poverty through microfinance and related efforts. I had been invited by Julie McDowell, Founder of ClearlySo Canada, to participate in her panel discussion about transforming lives through linking markets.
I have to say that I enjoyed myself immensely because I felt at home among others who are equally passionate about finding ways to empower people in extremely difficult circumstances around the globe. I realized that it has been way too long since I have taken the time to meet with my colleagues in international development. The energy and the benefits of discussing ideas and learning from what others are doing were incredible.
The last time I attended a conference with similar professionals was in Washington in 2008. It was the SEEP conference and the ink on my business cards was still wet. I had just incorporated the business, was fresh and full of ideas, and had yet to actually do anything. This conference was foundational to the development model employed by us and led to what really forms the heart of our work at ZOË Alliance.
On the surface we sell gifts and promotional items made by people in villages in developing nations. Kind of a “Ten Thousand Villages” for corporations. But the heart of our work is to fulfill a key role in partnership with other organizations in international development, the role of access to markets. We provide village business people access to North American markets for gifts and promotional items.
To place this in context, there are 5 key spheres of action in international development:
1. Aid – sending money, food, etc…
2. Infrastructure – digging wells, building schools, etc…
3. Microfinance – providing access to capital to enable people to develop sustainable income streams for themselves and their families.
4. Access to Markets – linking markets to these small businesses to help grow the economy and impact
5. Governmental Collaboration – working with governments to establish fair practices and policies in developing nations
I learned that access to markets is one of the most challenging areas for development and in fact, probably the most important area of opportunity for corporations to contribute. That is our niche at ZOË Alliance and the conference highlighted many other innovative approaches by companies who are focusing all or a portion of their Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives on poverty alleviation. Our approach is to work in partnership with non-governmental organizations, (NGOs) and national or indigenous business leaders. We access markets for our business colleagues in various villages enabling them to grow their businesses.
By far, the best part of TIMS was hearing companies like Citi, Cuppa Change, Oliberte and others share their approaches to alleviating poverty. Also striking was hearing a very dedicated group of microfinance professionals celebrate successes AND grapple earnestly with the issues they face in increasing the social impact of their efforts. Microfinance is a complex tool for change and is not without it’s controversies. Even so, I walked away impressed by the courage of the conversations and the commitment to principled and genuine outcomes.
Finally, the benefit of collaboration for maximum impact was crystal clear. The recognition that microfinance is one tool amongst others and an avid interest in developing solutions that draw together the strengths of different parties toward even stronger sustainable development strategies was evident.
I have to say that working Saturday’s is not my favourite thing to do, especially since this one happened to be my birthday. But I was honoured to have been invited to participate and am very grateful to be a part of such an incredible community of people.
The ZOË Alliance team has the privilege of working with some truly incredible leaders in each country. This month’s blog brings us an update directly from the field in Guatemala. It provides a pretty comprehensive look into their principles, the way in which they engage the communities they serve and some great examples of impact.
UPDATE FROM OUR GUATEMALAN PARTNERS – ASOCIACIÓN HOGARES INTERNACIONALES PARA NINOS – GUATEMALA CITY, GUATEMALA
“We build business opportunities because we see scarcity of education as a fundamental problem. Without
 Rudy & Sully Rojas
training, people are denied jobs because they don’t have the necessary skills. Through the leather projects, we create opportunities to provide people with training that opens the doors to other opportunities for employment income.”
– Rudy and Sully Rojas, Directors, Asociación Hogares Internacionales Para Ninos, a CH Global program in Guatemala.
Rudy and Sully Rojas have been leading the CH Global initiative in Guatemala for 20 years. Headquartered in Guatemala City, they work with both urban and rural communities – some as close as 28 km away in Amatitlàn, and others as far away as Puerto Barrios, 300 km away in the northeastern part of the country.
The primary communities supported include: Puerto Barrios, El Zapatillo, Lake Amatitlàn, El Campanero, Xelaju, San Pedro, three groups in Antigua and four groups right in Guatemala City.
Their programs centre around four key areas of focus: Education; Community Development Continue reading Guatemalan Update – A Glimpse Into Some Great Work!
Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall LLP/s.r.l. – A Law Firm that Genuinely Understands and Get’s Results … in the Courtroom and in the Community.
On June 8th, I had the incredible privilege of sitting in a room with three partners of Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall to talk about their recent experience with not only taking the ZOË Challenge but also as ambassadors for the movement.
During our meeting, Lorraine Mastersmith, Anthony McGlynn and Aaron Rubinoff shared their thoughts on their experiences in a lively conversation fuelled by enthusiasm knowing their efforts at sharing the challenge had already inspired 3 other major organizations to join in. At the time this article was written, their impact on the lives of people in villages had already been quadrupled and the trickle effect has only just begun.
Of course, I already knew they were great people, but I was keen to hear how a group of seasoned legal professionals in a competitive environment viewed CSR and community involvement when hours are measured in dollars. Read on for what they said…and if you are strapped for time and the “Coles Notes” type, skip ahead and read their parting comments in the last question.
Q: Could you start by telling us more in general about your firm, its’ values and perspective on corporate social responsibility?
Anthony: We are a large Ottawa-based full service law firm and many, if not all of our lawyers volunteer in the community, from board service in not-for-profit and charitable organizations to coaching sports. For example, Aaron is involved in the Heart Institute, I was the Chair of the Chamber of Commerce, do volunteer board work, and am currently on the board of Bytown museum. We provide pro-bono legal services on a selective basis and have always encouraged our professionals to be involved in the community.
Aaron: We have worked with a very broad scope of organizations over our firm’s 40 year history in our community. Our lawyers spend a good deal of time with organizations like the Youville Centre and grass roots organizations like the Boys and Girls club. It is important to us to be involved at all levels, including direct service provider organizations.
Lorraine: When this opportunity came up it was a natural fit. We wanted to give something people would remember as our gift at the OCRI Awards Gala Dinner, something that was not “run of the mill”. As the gift we chose was something different, we thought it would be a conversation piece for the recipients. We saw it as a nice thing to do, both for the gift recipients and for the people in the village. And the result was incredible; it really did start a conversation. Every person in the room picked up their pens when I presented them and showed a real appreciation for the positive impact this purchase had on the people who had made them. Attendees at the dinner approached a number of lawyers in our firm after the event, telling us that the buzz was that our firm is really on the leading edge of corporate social responsibility. The whole experience was pretty cool. (View OCRI Gala Presentation by Lorraine)
Q: To me it seems that the legal profession would be a difficult sector to spend much time on volunteering because the nature of the business involves billing for time…how do you balance that?
Aaron: Being part of a community gives us access to work – it is one of those great “virtuous circles”. There is something in it for us to be good members of our community. We are not embarrassed by that and I think people should talk about it to help motivate newer business people to get involved and recognize the value such involvement brings. We feel everyone being involved helps us to grow the business. We employ 125 people, which means 125 mortgages etc… so of course we have to find time to do our work to pay our people. It is still important to us to find time to help.
Anthony: We do need to justify our time, and our experiences have shown that being part of the part of the community helps build our business. Most of us also do pro bono work on a regular basis which is a form of giving back that is less visible but has significant impact for the supported organization or individual.
Q: Can you talk about the decision making process for your gift selection for the OCRI event? What you did, why you made the selection you did, and why you went as far as you did to tell the story to others?
Lorraine: We think what ZOË Alliance is doing is fantastic. It presented a really great marketing opportunity for the firm and gives all the way around. We were able to give a gift at a very reasonable cost, and it’s not just a pen, it has a story. It also created an opportunity for us to tell the story at the OCRI Awards Gala – raising the profile of our firm right along with the ZOË Challenge. It was really funny, the MC at the OCRI Gala brought up a traditional “giveaway” pen with all the bells and whistles and we contrasted it with the story of where our gift pens had come from, while showing the pictures of the women in Dharmapuri, India on the big screen holding our pens.
The whole ZOË Challenge is an admirable and valuable concept. It makes it easy for companies who are going to spend money on promotional items anyway to have a tangible personal impact on the lives of people in extremely difficult circumstances. It also creates an opportunity for firms to demonstrate their commitment to social impact to key clients and models the approach for others. It definitely generates a conversation and people remember it.
Q: How did that experience impact you, the staff at Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall and your clients?
Lorraine: Different lawyers who had clients at the event expressed appreciation and it clearly generated a perception that we are leading edge.
Anthony: Internally the whole experience was a real morale booster, everybody was really charged up about it. We felt like did something really decent.
Aaron: CSR is a real challenge for us as there is a huge constituency that could care less, but there is clearly a growing constituency that are informed business people that do care about their community and this resonates with them. It goes back to the virtuous circle, creating a reason to consider working with us and have us as top of mind. It helps us reach out to a group of people that we haven’t resonated with before and gives us a differentiator.
Q: What would be the one thing you would tell other law firms and corporations in general in North America about this experience?
Anthony: It’s a fun experience and you get value for money. Even if you have no social responsibility element or that is not your primary concern, the product is quality and you get value so it’s an easy business decision.
Aaron: This has given us an opportunity to speak to a constituency that we would have otherwise missed. In a room filled with people, you can’t tell who this will resonate with, this opens new doors.
Perley-Robertson, Hill & McDougall’s initiative is another great example of just how much fun it is to build this movement harnessing the power of our routine gift spending for substantive social impact. We hope you enjoy our updates on who is Taking the Challenge, stay tuned for next months blog!
This month’s blog brings us the insights of Mr. Bradley Offman of Mackenzie Investments. Mr. Offman is a sought after speaker in the industry and gives companies of all sizes some good food for thought on the social benefits of thinking creatively with our social investments.
“It is part of an overall culture where you are looking for ways to support philanthropy with a non-traditional approach, and social enterprise certainly falls into that category. It’s a more creative way to approach generating capital for the sector that extends beyond government grants and donations. We are encouraging others to ask the question – what is a broader way to support the sector beyond grant making?” Bradley Offman, Vice President, Strategic Philanthropy – Mackenzie Investments
Creative Social Investments for Lasting Change
At Mackenzie Investments, we have two primary objectives with our philanthropic grants and activities from the Mackenzie Financial Charitable Foundation. The first is to create a lasting impact on the organization that we are supporting, and the second is to engage Mackenzie employees in a culture of philanthropy.
Creating a lasting impact can be challenging. We engage with smaller social services organizations that focus on children and youth at high risk, including shelters and leadership programs. The ultimate goal is to build the capacity of organizations with whom we develop relationships. In engaging employees at all levels, we are able to provide financial support and volunteers to help the organizations achieve their missions.
Holistic Relationships
One particularly good example is our relationship with North York Harvest Food Bank (www.northyorkharvest.com). We have been able to dramatically increase our financial support over time and have even been able to assist in the purchase of a new vehicle as a one-time supplement to their efforts.
Several dozen Mackenzie employees have volunteered for the charity over the past two years and we are always seeking ways to support North York Harvest in a number of different ways. This is truly a product of a holistic relationship with the organization that allows the Foundation’s investment to achieve a sustained impact.
Beyond the Grant…
However, we are not a huge granting organization and so another creative way that we have been supporting social organizations is through the purchase of products or services that we regularly source. It has been rewarding to see the impact of our decisions to source catering services from Friend’s Catering at the Fred Victor Centre (www.evasinitiatives.com) and gifts from the village producers of the ZOË Alliance (www.zoealliance.com).
The idea is rooted in the social enterprise and social finance movements in general and it is this notion that if you are small, if you are creative, you can realize that there are other ways to create impact. Whether relocating accounts to a credit union, or using a social enterprise to cater events these things, in many ways, do as much to enhance your philanthropic culture as the broader $10,000 or $25,000 grants. Simple things like promotional items or catering are in some ways even more impactful because not a lot of people are doing them.
The Opportunity
It is part of an overall culture where you are looking for ways to support philanthropy with a non-traditional approach, and social enterprise certainly falls into that category. It’s a more creative way to approach generating capital for the sector that extends beyond government grants and donations. We are encouraging others to ask the question – what is a broader way to support the sector beyond grant making?
The best part of venturing into these new areas for impact is that people think it is really fascinating. It’s making them think and realize that we are going a bit beyond traditional corporate philanthropy and putting our money where our mouth is. They realize that we are thinking a little bit more broadly and that we “get it”.
I like the idea of the ZOË Challenge in that it touches on something that we at Mackenzie had already started to explored – creative ways to achieve greater impact that leverage existing budgets and routine business practices. It does require a new way of thinking, but our understanding of the value of social enterprise made these decisions rather easy to make.
Haiti is a place where there is hope, renewal and growth. These are three words that would not be the first to pop to mind when the topic of Haiti comes up. And yet this month’s update from Brian Stout, the US Director of Open Door Haiti, is filled with the evidence of all three.
For a little over a year, since the earthquake, we have experienced a mixed blessing in Bois de Lance, Haiti. The world has rallied to help the Haitian people rebuild their country in the wake of the earthquake. That support has created the opportunity for hope, renewal and growth on a scale that we have not seen in the almost 10 years we have been working in Haiti.
Open Door reaches out to address the needs of thousands of people within the village of Bois de Lance each year through: the medical clinic; school for 550 children; orphanage being constructed that will support 50 children: and all the community members who access safe water daily from our wells. We are also the largest employer in the village and it is our goal to increase the amount of funding that we can generate locally through sustainable business models.
 Children washing up before school This year in addition to our cash crops of broccoli, cilantro, cabbage, sweet potatoes, beans, corn, and bananas we are adding goat and chicken farming.
Haitians import over 2,000,000 eggs per day from the Dominican Republic. We are installing our very first chicken house for 60 chickens. Our plan is to grow to 3 houses with over 1,200 chickens. This project will produce eggs and chickens for meat to be sold in the local market, providing steady employment for 9 people.
We also continue to reach out to access trade with other countries through our partnership with ZOË Alliance. This is a great opportunity for us because it helps us to leverage existing skills, like sewing, and to ensure that more women are able to apply this skill not just here in our work centre, but also in other opportunities locally.
We are excited to be producing the Espére Lunch Bag for ZOË Alliance because we have experienced the ripple effect that the income from these projects has on the lives of people. As an example, something as simple as the drawstring bags that hold the game pieces for Ti Ta To 10 (Dix) enabled one couple, Helene and Pierre Delius to buy a cow. This gave them the income to lease land to plant crops, from which the proceeds are sustaining their family.
 Helene and Ladies of Seamstress Unit All people want to work and to provide for their families. It is no different in Bois de Lance and we are excited about having another product to help create steady employment opportunities. I want to thank everyone who purchases these products with this little glimpse into the sustained impact that your decision is achieving in the lives of our community.
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