Building a stable foundation  

While basic salaries are about double what they were in 2006, they are still not adequate. So we have added a monthly bonus system which, after setting aside funds for reserves, distributes the surplus on an individual percentage basis. These bonuses have the potential to double the basic salaries when individual skills and responsibilities grow and the program calendar is full. Beyond this, there are government-mandated benefits required after 5 years of employment which also add security for the staff.

The final phase of our institutional development is to diversify our program offerings to amplify the impact of our mission and add more stability to our ICA monthly income. The first approach that we looked at was to extend our 6 months of work in the communities. We have one of these small projects in operation throughout 2011, and have offered a similar plan to three clients. One company is talking with us about a 2-year project to deal with youth unemployment in the rural communities in their impact zone. Then just this month, a client asked us to prepare a very large proposal for it to enter into a competition for major funding, and that proposal was submitted in late August.

While the outcome is uncertain, our bond with the company has grown stronger and we will do further work with it whether the grant is won or not.

And finally, this year we have created a new program called UNIDOS. It is a 6-day training program to get rural laborers to use their new salaries for the benefit of their families instead of indulging in the typical drunkenness and prostitution. This program strongly complements our community leadership formation work. Just one ongoing contract can fully cover our monthly overhead with just the use of two staff members. UNIDOS has received an enthusiastic reception from our clients and we now have several moving toward contracting.

Our 2006 plan had 7 scenarios ranging from a full corporate mission and team -- to scenario “Number 7” which was to dissolve the ICA and seek individual employment and new careers. We frequently laugh about “Number 7” these days as we experience one surprise after another in the daily unfolding of our lives. Now we are becoming ready to turn some attention outward to collaborate with our ICA colleagues around the globe.
Focus on viable rural cities

In the midst of our busy calendar, ICA-Peru was asked by one of our company clients to submit a proposal for a Canadian grant which requires an innovative approach to community development. Our proposal is titled Auto-Desarrollo: Facilitando Ciudades Rurales a ser Viables en el Siglo 21 (“Self-Development: Facilitating Rural Cities to be Viable in the 21st Century”), and it is for at least $600,000. The community in question has a population of 4,500 with about 500 people earning company salaries. Nearly all of that money goes out to a large city 7 hours away with no benefit for the community at all. There is an urgent need to build businesses and cultural services in

 the community so that these salaries can be spent within the community. Without such services, none of the youth will remain in the community either. This is the pattern throughout the 5,000 rural communities in the mountains of Peru. This grant will help us do a demonstration project and document how this trend can be turned around, thus helping to recover viable communities throughout the rural areas of Peru. Whether we are awarded this grant or not, we have decided to turn the direction of our leadership training toward the development of viable rural cities throughout the Sierra of Peru, and will be sharing the models we develop with the ICA global network.