We currently work with a large group of ladies (over 100) who bake rolls twice a week to sell at their local markets and within their village. This has become a thriving program for them, as they have a large number of older women in their community whose poor eyesight and arthritis in their hands does not allow for finer skills such as sewing or jewelry-making. This work also is a natural community-builder, as it takes many women to help knead the heavy dough, to roll hundreds of “scones”, and to keep it all organized. They spend an entire afternoon together, talking, singing, and generally supporting each other while they work.

Fount’s Vocational Development program provided an oven in the summer of 2010, which has doubled the capacity of their baking. We also brought in a local baker who spent 2 days with the women, teaching them new products—large loaves of bread (“big bread”), and donuts. They have hired a man with a bike who takes the products to local village shops and individuals who buy it from them to re-sell. The profits from the baking go to the women who work, back into more materials for the baking program, and into larger needs of the other programs they run…like the sewing, jewelry, and craft-making programs. We hope to not only continue to help this group learn new products, expand their market, and manage their income consistently, but to emulate this model with other groups.