Project Description
Farmers in Los Toros in the Azua region of the Dominican Republic suffered considerable loss due to torrential rains. Cooperativa de Ahorro, Crédito y Servicios Múltiples Amor y Paz (COOPSERMORPAZ) helps its members improve production and marketing of plantains and make their business enterprise more sustainable in order to generate income and improve livelihoods. At the IAF, we support community-led solutions to expand economic opportunity in the Dominican Republic. COOPSERMORPAZ’s activities increase small business growth, local entrepreneurship and market development to ensure meaningful opportunities for communities to thrive.
| Project: | Location: | Years active: | IAF grant funding: | Counterpart commitment: | Direct beneficiaries: | Indirect beneficiaries: | Program areas: |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Promoting improved plantain varieties among small producers of Los Toros, Azua | Dominican Republic | 2015 – 2020 | $256,475 | $870,341 | 75 individuals | agriculture and food security job skills and enterprise development |
Talk about community-led development!
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With funds from the Inter-American Foundation (IAF), grantees Ñepi Behña and Ya Montsi Behña have developed Corazon Verde, a jointly-owned enterprise that markets products both domestically and internationally, such as bath sponges, jams, jellies and soaps, all derived from the maguey cactus, which is native to the Valle de Mezquital region of Hidalgo state in Mexico. While she waits to deliver her finished bath sponges, a coop member winds amorphous treated fibers of the maguey cactus into a single thread using a hand spindle. The thread will later be used to knit products for the cooperative Ya Montsi Behña.
Grassroots Businesses: A Virtual Artisan Fair
Over the past 50 years, the IAF has supported an incredible number of innovative and entrepreneurial groups with a common dream: transforming their lives and communities. Join us as we travel north to south through the region to see how agricultural producers and artisan groups have conquered the world with small IAF investments to grow their businesses.
Grassroots Development: 40th Anniversary
The 2009 issue of the IAF's Grassroots Development journal.
¡NOSOTROS GENTE! Afro-Descendants Telling Our Stories, Empowering Our People
On June 30, 2019, we joined the National Museum of African American History and Culture for an event with storytellers and scholars from the United States and Latin America.