GOOD PRACTICE FROM ARGENTINA
Pecohue: It is a social entrepreneurship
programme that focuses on the organic
production of vegetables and compost
Pecohue is a social entrepreneurship undertaking
that aims at enabling 16-to-25-year-old
intellectually-challenged youngsters to enter
the job market. Its activity takes place in
a vegetable garden where a wide range of
vegetables is grown.
The project is a result of the cooperation
among volunteers and students who carry out
their professional practice there. The former
come from varying backgrounds and their age
span is equally broad. The latter are mainly
Psychology and Occupational Therapy
students. All of them collaborate with the 'users',
youngsters that have different disabilities or
disorders and who are aided and encouraged
to carry out diverse tasks in the vegetable
garden environment.
The entrepreneurship undertaking is
economically self-sufficient besides the fact
that the 'collaborators' are not paid for their
work, all the harvest is sold to third parties,
and the profits are used to cover the different
costs that need to be paid, such as the purchase
of seeds or, in some cases, for instance,
granting scholarships to the 'users.'