Community Evolution

🌱 From Solidarity to Self-Sufficiency: A Tale of Two Communities 🤝

In the high-altitude regions of 🇧🇴 🇧🇴, two Indigenous women-led cooperatives — AFLOPHA in Achocalla and AIMPACHA in Chacoma — have forged more than just a partnership. They've built a relationship rooted in mutual trust, shared learning, and a collective vision of economic independence.

CE provided support — including embedded facilitation, infrastructure seed funding, and focused training — to two nearby communities in rural Bolivia, and these investments sparked a partnership across distance - these communities have become powerful mirrors for one another.

🌿 AFLOPHA is an association of Aymara women in Achocalla who run a thriving greenhouse vegetable operation. With CE’s support, they built four greenhouses and a workshop, dramatically boosting productivity and local livelihoods.

🥚 AIMPACHA, based in Chacoma, focuses on growing vegetables and producing eggs. CE’s investment helped them build greenhouses, improve pest control, and expand into egg production, enhancing both nutrition and income for their members.

📈 The results speak volumes:

• Profitable every year of operations
• Created deep bonds of collaboration between two communities
• Generated 167 local sources of employment

These aren’t just numbers, they are lives - lives of families in the region, forever improved thanks to the co-operative model.

CE’s is proud of the work of these communities, and together, we invest in inter-community relationships, in women’s leadership, and in the right of communities to decide their economic destinies.

When empowered communities rise, they rise together. 🚀

🎃 From Harvest to Innovation: The Rise of Surcos del Sol 🎃

In the heart of Sigchos, 🇪🇨 🇪🇨, a group of dedicated farmers turned challenge into opportunity. What began as a struggle against low market prices for pumpkins has now blossomed into a thriving community-led agro-industrial enterprise, thanks to the determination of the Surcos del Sol Association and the support of Community Evolution!

🔹 From Market Struggles to Innovation

Founded in 2019, just months before the global pandemic, Surcos del Sol started with 12 members determined to improve their livelihoods. With CE’s guidance, they saw a new path forward—not just selling pumpkins, but transforming them into high-value products.

🔸 Growth Through Community Collaboration

Through a CE-supported training program in 2021, the association expanded to 23 active members, learning to develop processed pumpkin derivatives and diversify their production with dried grains.

🌍 A Vision for 2030

With a mission to become a nationally recognized, socially and environmentally responsible company, Surcos del Sol is now working toward establishing its own agro-industrial plant, ensuring food safety, quality, and long-term economic stability for community members.

This is what community empowerment can look like thanks to the power of the cooperative model! Surcos del Sol is not just producing food—they are pioneering community-driven development in Ecuador, proving that collaboration, education, and innovation can and does transform local economies.

Community Evolution Empowering communities in Bolivia, Canada, Ecuador, and Nepal

📸 Community Evolution Founder Paul Zysman being welcomed by the community of Sigchos in beautiful 🇪🇨 🇪🇨 during a recent site visit.

🚀 CE’s small investment of $36,000 helped this community unlock their economic potential!

📈 One of CE's partners in Sigchos is the El ultimo Inca wines and preserves co-operative, which has seen a meteoric rise from humble beginnings to its industrial facility, now $2.4M in total sales, a $500,000 Green Prize win, and a community forever transformed for the better.

This new economic activity is fueling:

🍇 The expansion of the winery to a larger, state-of-the-art production facility.

🏨 A new tourist hotel and restaurant, which will bring more visitors and economic opportunities to the region.

We couldn't be more proud of our colleagues and partners in Sigchos!

Together, we can help communities unlock their full potential through the development of co-ops. 💪🏾💪🏾