Ricchari Conference on Micro Enterprise Development

July 28^th – August 8^th 2007. Pisac

NB This is long! If you want to read a quick summary, just look at the introduction and last couple of paragraphs!

Pisac is the most spectacular location for a conference. The hotel is surrounded by beautiful mountains and sits just below the Inca ruins perched on the cliffs of a rocky peak. The road past the hotel, which runs alongside the river, is frequented both by the local Quechua people, llamas, pigs and cows and by the tourist taxis and buses taking visitors up to the ruins.

The diversity of the conference delegates adds to the beauty of the location with people from five continents of all colours speaking many languages. Our main speakers come from Nigeria, the Philippines, Australia, the United States and Peru. We have representatives of micro-finance projects from Peru, Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, Uganda, South Africa, Moldova, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Vietnam, plus volunteers from the States who work to support the projects in these regions.

The conference is organised by PEER Servants, a body of volunteers in the States who want to use their business skills in serving the poor and making Jesus known. They support the above projects in the developing world by providing loan capital, training and financial advice, plus prayer support and help with discipleship.

I have already been struck by the generosity of the Americans that have come here for the conference – all with ‘normal’ day jobs but giving their time, talents, skills and resources to empower people, not in an overbearing or controlling way, but with a humble spirit and a sense that they have a responsibility before God to use what he has given them. They have a hospitality team here who do everything to look after the guests from the partner projects and many of them have spoken about how although they are materially rich they feel spiritually poor and have gained so much as they work with the projects throughout the world.

Sunday

The morning meeting was led by our own Cusco church with Mary leading worship and Americo preaching (on potatoes!). People from the church were able to come for the service, a free lunch and to use all the recreational facilities of the hotel for the day.

The evening meeting was the main opening meeting of the conference. Most people had arrived by this time although the Nigerians were delayed and the Moldovans had missed their flight and are expected on Tuesday! The theme of the conference is ‘Awakening to God’s vision for economic empowerment’ (‘Ricchari’ means ‘Awakening’ in Quechua). Our speaker for the evenings is David Cohen, now based in Australia, but previously he has worked for Tearfund and Scripture Union. He was our contact from another friend in the UK that led us to the project in Cusco so it has been nice to finally meet him!

Monday

The basic plan for the weekdays this week is devotions led by our pastor before breakfast; a main session and then two workshops (from a choice of three each time) in the morning; a choice of activity in the afternoon (e.g. visiting the ruins, visiting some businesses supported by the Cusco project, using the hotel recreational facilities); and then a final session in the evening. Today Roland went to the morning sessions so I’ll let him write about those: (In the mornings I take the boys to the playground and the pool.)

The speaker at the main session each morning was Ruth Callanta from the Philippines. She helped start a micro-finance organisation about 15 years ago (Centre for Community Transformation). It now helps over 115,000 people with their small businesses. They also have various other projects to effect social transformation. They also partner with churches to meet peoples spiritual needs too. Her sessions were very inspirational, but ‘real’ at the same time as she told of the mistakes they had made along the way and the challenges they face.

There was then a choice of workshops later in the morning, most of which were a bit more technical.
The workshops on Monday were:

Managing a loan write-off policy
Staff Training

A novelty for us this week is to be able to sing in English! The worship band has come from the US and so although they do some songs in other languages there is plenty in English. We even sang ‘In Christ Alone’ tonight so we felt very at home! The lead singer was actually English tonight too! (He’s married to an American.)

The message tonight included the encouragement not to be burdened by all the problems of your whole country. We are all working in countries with complex and multitudinous needs and difficulties and we were encouraged to find God’s focus for our ministry and reassured that God will provide the resources for what he is calling us to do.

Sammy and Benjamin have started to make friends with the other children today. Sammy went to the playground this morning with two girls adopted into the USA from Guatemala, and Benjamin’s friend is a little boy also adopted from Guatemala. The two of them are practicing their walking together which is very sweet! Sammy’s favourite place is the swimming pool. It’s under cover but rather cold! He doesn’t seem to mind shivering! He’s getting the hang of swimming with the help of his armbands. Our pastor’s eldest son, Daniel (12), is here with his mum, and he is getting very fond of the boys.

Tuesday

Workshops: Sustainability; Staff Challenges and Opportunities

In the afternoon we had the opportunity to visit the Pisac ruins, high up on the mountain above the hotel. It was a little challenging with the boys but Roland carried Benjamin in the back-carrier and Sammy walked part of it and was carried by either myself or the guide for the more difficult parts. The views from the top were amazing! The ruins are quite extensive with various sections – agricultural, domestic, religious – and the type of stones and architecture are different in each part. There are also extensive terraces which were used for growing crops.

Wednesday

Workshops: Entrepreneur Training; What does it take to be Tranformational? (I went to this one); Learning to use Microfin (a computer program)

The afternoon was the inter-continental football conference. Sadly the home continent, surprisingly lost in the final, even with the advantage of many players being used to the altitude!

Thursday

The conference delegates had the day off today to go to Machu Picchu (leaving at 5am!) We gave this a miss as we’ve been twice before and will no doubt go with other visitors a few more times. Our friends Geoff and Rachel and their boys came up to Pisac for the afternoon to see us, and to bring 4 other friends from Lima who are visiting Cusco this week. We had a nice lunch together in a café in Pisac and then I went round the huge craft market with our Lima friends while the others took the boys back to play in the recreation centre at the hotel.

In the evening we had our meal with Todd and Leslie, the couple who head up PEER servants, to talk a bit about the project in Cusco and how they think we might be involved.

Friday

I went to the morning seminar led by Ruth from the Philippines. Her other sessions had been more about how her projects run but this was more her personal story. In the afternoon delegates had the chance to see various projects around Cusco. Some went to visit clients of the Cusco project linked with our church, but I went with a group visiting a children’s home. One of the churches in the states had brought footballs and shirts for the kids.

Weekend

We came home Friday night as the delegates had time off to see Cusco and the surrounding area over the weekend. Roland helped with a short city tour on Saturday and we met up with them both days for lunch.

Monday/Tuesday

These days were specifically set aside for evaluation and planning for each project represented at the conference. Staff and board members from each project, plus one or two of the volunteers associated with these projects from the States, met together to discuss: Products and Activities; Risk Assessment and Management; Office and Systems; Governance; Resources; Entrepreneur Transformation; Staff and Management; Sustainability. Roland travelled over both days to be part of the Cusco team discussions.

I took the boys over on Monday as Sammy was keen to see his new friends and use the swimming pool again!

Although I was looking after the boys for much of the conference, I found the sessions I did go to and the people that I met very inspirational. I don’t know much about business or finance but the part of the PEER Servants vision that really interests me is the idea of ‘transformation’ in the lives of the clients. It’s not just about giving loans and business training to bring about economic transformation, but about offering prayer, Bible teaching, hope and empowerment. I also think involvement in these types of project is an excellent way for us from the materially rich West (especially those involved in business) to contribute to, and learn from, people in very different situations.

It was also great to be with such an internationally diverse group of people and also to know that many of them either have lived or are currently living away from their home country. Not only do they share our passion to see lives transformed through business training and discipleship, but they know what it is like for us personally to be living in a foreign culture far from home.

Roland’s summary:

For me it was a very inspirational week which helped me see the how lives can be transformed in many ways. It was good to hear from people with experience and also to see the potential for ways in which I can use the skills I’ve learnt over the past few years.

Kallarisunchis is only small at the moment but I believe has great potential to affect the lives on many people in and around Cusco in a positive way. I need to work out exactly how I will work with them to help them to achieve this. For the time being I need to continue to concentrate on language study, but I will begin to get a clearer picture of their current financial situation and look with them at some plans for the future.