An Extraordinary Businesswoman Works to Improve the Lives of Orphans

With the profits she made through the USDA-funded Mercy Corps Global Food for Education program, Klara was able to turn an abandoned building into a safe environment for orphans. Photo: Mercy Corps Kyrgyzstan

Klara isn't an ordinary businesswoman, but that's what we all thought she was when she started buying flour donated by the U.S Department of Agriculture in Osh, Kyrgyzstan.

The flour was being sold on the local market as part of Mercy Corps’ Global Food for Education Initiative. Proceeds from the flour sales are earmarked for such projects as school infrastructure repair, water and sanitation improvement, food security or to purchase desperately needed school supplies and equipment. Klara had other ideas.

A while ago, she had wanted to improve the lives of orphans and abandoned children in Osh and set up her own non-governmental organization. She persuaded the local government authorities to give her an abandoned building for her work. Given the state of the building, they were probably glad to get rid of it.

Along with the other members of her organization, she started buying the wheat flour donated by the USDA and selling it at a profit to other distributors and end-users. The profit she made from these sales was put into the repair of the building.

Klara could have simply written a proposal to Mercy Corps for these repairs but she didn't want to face the possibility of being turned down. Her work was too important to her and too important for the children she was trying to help.

The ramshackle building has now been restored by Klara and her staff and is now home and school to 37 orphaned and abandoned children.

With funding from USDA, Mercy Corps began the Global Food for Education program in October 2001. The program aims to improve learning conditions for students and to promote community involvement in education through the distribution of rice, vegetable oil and flour, which are being apportioned to every kindergarten and boarding school throughout Kyrgyzstan. The program reaches approximately 500 schools serving close to 60,000 students.

Additionally, Mercy Corps uses the proceeds from the sale of vegetable oil and flour to generate funds that it than distributes in the form of small grants. These grants support local educational facilities by carrying out works focusing on infrastructure repair, water and sanitation, food security and equipment and supplies. To date, Mercy Corps has funded 76 school-improvement projects in Kyrgyzstan.