We Have Big News to Share With You!
Our ED, Larry Coben, had the honor and privilege to be keynote speaker and address over 100 Myanmar entrepreneurs, the vast majority women, at the recent UP Forum in Yangon to kick off this collaboration.
You may remember that we developed a “mini-business school” and capacity building program that provides essential business training for people, particularly women, who live in poor communities and lack much if any formal education. It provides economically disadvantaged communities with the tools to establish, build and sustain locally-owned and managed businesses, and the means to preserve their cultural heritage. Organizations like UNOPS and the Peruvian Ministry of Tourism thought the business school could be utilized beyond archaeological sites, and have formed collaborations with us to do just that.
That's right! We are setting up mini-business schools all over Peru and Tanzania for small scale artisans and entrepreneurs. The first two will be at Pachacamac, Peru and Bagamoyo, Tanzania, sites of existing successful SPI projects. And that is only the beginning-more countries to come!
The goal: to bring basic business education to women and other marginalized entrepreneurs around the world. With you, we will build more futures and save more pasts... maximizing our impact!
This global expansion will be headed up by the latest addition to SPI: Maureen Miskovic, former chief risk officer of UBS and State Street, and Chairman of the Eurasia Group among other accomplishments. An amazing woman building futures for other amazing women around the world! Welcome Maureen!
Successful Women Entrepreneurs
Tanzania’s Government will ban the use of plastic bags beginning on July 1, 2019. As a response, the women's cooperative that we support at the site of Kaole, WAUTO, has begun producing baskets, mats etc using locally available environmental friendly materials. Visit the Kaole ruins and place your order!
And check how well some of the first graduates of the mini-business school, the women's cooperative SISAN are doing at the site of Pachacamac, Peru. The sales figures from their artisan business are amazing! The curriculum works! SPI projects continue to turn local community members - mostly women - into successful entrepreneurs and small business owners.
The keychains by SPI supported artisans that were sold with the help of Spiritu!
The women artisans at Kuelap and Ollantaytambo are now cracking international markets. They have sold $7,700 of keychains already this year, including a big order to Spiritu.
This massive scaling of our business school will of course require significant additional resources, as will expanded efforts to build futures and save pasts in several new countries. Sustainable economic development is the key to a brighter future for many impoverished people, as well as preserving our shared past.
Please join us in seizing this unique opportunity to expand and bring these benefits to communities and sites all over the world.
Contributions may be made online here. Checks may be sent to:
Sustainable Preservation Initiative
40 West 22nd Street 11th Floor
New York, NY 10010
SPI is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit. Our tax ID is 27-2704326.