| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : MAY 1, 2000 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| INTERNATIONAL -- LATIN AMERICAN COVER STORY
Peru: Fixing the World, One Roof at a Time (int'l edition) Edgar Yauri labors away at an open-air workshop on the outskirts of the city of Ayacucho, in the Peruvian highlands. He shovels a reddish mixture of sand, crushed stones, and cement from a wheelbarrow into a plastic mold, scrapes off the excess, and slides out a new roof tile, which he places on a pile to dry overnight. It took Yauri just 10 days to pick up this new skill, but it has changed his life: The 21-year-old has been able to resume his high school education, which was disrupted in the 1990s by the campaign of terror mounted by Shining Path guerrillas. There were massacres in Yauri's village during those years, and many people fled the area. ''There's no work in my village except farming, and that only gives you enough to eat, no more,'' he says. Now, Yauri can support himself and pay for his schooling. The ''micro-concrete'' technology was introduced to Peru 11 years ago by a Swiss government development agency as a cheap, durable alternative to traditional clay roofing. The agency offered low-interest loans and training to Peruvians who wanted to go into the tile-making business. But it wasn't until the government began promoting the return of more than 150,000 migrants to their villages around Ayacucho in the mid-1990s that the program took off. Today, the original pilot project has expanded into a self-supporting network of 40 privately run for-profit companies that provide direct employment for more than 500 people and indirect jobs to an additional 1,000. They have roofed more than 8,000 houses and around 100 schools and churches, as well as luxury beach houses along the Pacific coast. ''We have generated local employment while helping to improve the quality of life with better housing,'' boasts Cesar Dominguez, managing director of the Center for Services for Business Development, a nonprofit organization that helps set up the small companies. Support has also come from the U.N. Development Program, which in 1998 provided seed capital for a dozen new tile shops run largely by women, who in rural Peru have limited job opportunities. Several already are self-financing, thanks to sizable orders from Peru's Women's Ministry. Once tile shops are up and running, owners often diversify into other construction materials, such as bricks and flooring, using the same micro-concrete technology. In 1999, the companies' sales totaled around $680,000, with profit margins of about 20%, Dominguez says. For Peru's tilemakers, there's comfort in the knowledge that they can earn a decent living with the new skills they've learned, no matter where they go. Not to mention the fact that they will always have a good roof over their heads. By Jane Holligan in Ayacucho _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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 RELATED ITEMS The Fight against Latin Poverty (int'l edition) LATIN AMERICA COVER IMAGE: The Fight against Poverty CHART: The Intractable Problem TABLE: Promising New Approaches to Reducing Poverty Mexico: A Powerful Incentive to Keep Kids in School (int'l edition) Peru: Fixing the World, One Roof at a Time (int'l edition) Brazil: Small Investments That Make a Big Difference (int'l edition) ONLINE ORIGINAL: Chile: Turning Street People into Businesspeople INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
