Invest in the next generation of Awajun entrepreneurs
A community-owned enterprise in Peru's Amazon. Real buyers. Real demand. One bottleneck: capacity to scale.
This week, your gift goes twice as far. A matching donor doubles every contribution to NUGKUI.
750 million people live in extreme poverty. Not because they lack ability.
At CODESPA, we know that the intelligence and abilities of the most vulnerable people are just as valuable as yours or mine. They were born into a context that limits what they can do with those abilities.
Most aid gives people what they need to survive today. We do something different: we build the conditions that let people generate their own income, on their own terms, for good.
Not a hand-out. A hand-up, and then the tools to climb further on their own. That is what we have done for 40 years, across 34 countries and for more than 5 million people.
The CODESPA Difference
Feed them for a day. Their situation tomorrow is unchanged.
Feed them for a lifetime. A skill that sustains a family.
Train them to run a business, connect them to buyers, structure ownership so the community keeps the value, and watch them feed, house, and invest in themselves, their families, and their communities for generations.
Turning rejected bananas into a thriving community enterprise
In Condorcanqui, one of Peru's most remote provinces, accessible mainly by river, with 38% of the population in extreme poverty, banana farming is the main livelihood. But intermediary buyers reject up to 70% of every harvest based on size and appearance. With no roads out and no alternative market, that fruit had no value.
CODESPA worked with the Awajun community to change that. We developed solar-powered processing technology with a local university, secured buyers before the product existed, and structured financing so the community would own the equipment outright. Then we trained young Awajun entrepreneurs to run the whole operation themselves.
Year-one sales: ~$2,400. A contracted buyer in Jaén purchasing 1,000 kg every month. Three additional national companies, Algarrobos Orgánicos, Candela, and D Valle, signaling demand for 2+ metric tons per month. The enterprise won the Premio Hub Norte 2025 and reinvested the entire prize into production improvements.
Results So Far
Meet Abias - he built a career without leaving home
Abias is Awajun, from the Chapi community in Condorcanqui. Before NUGKUI, the path for young people here was narrow: farm at subsistence level, or leave everything you know to find work elsewhere. There was no skilled employment, no enterprise, no future you could build at home.
Today, Abias leads the production team at NUGKUI. He is one of eleven young entrepreneurs, ages 19-25, who collect rejected bananas, run the solar-powered dehydrators, vacuum-seal the finished flakes, and coordinate shipments to buyers across Peru. He did not have to leave. NUGKUI gave him a reason to stay.
Your Investment - Every Donation Doubled this Week
Every amount below reflects the matched value this week.
One enterprise. Three problems solved.
The Murph Foundation
Now, The Murph Foundation is joining this story and helping tell it to the world.
Through a partnership with CODESPA, TMF is fundraising alongside us to expand NUGKUI's reach and equip the young Awajun entrepreneurs behind it with the resources they need to scale their impact. At the same time, TMF is self-funding a documentary that brings this community's journey to a global audience, because the most powerful way to inspire generosity is to let people see real change happening in real time.
Learn about The Murph Foundation →This is what the partnership between CODESPA and The Murph Foundation looks like: one organization building enterprises that last, and another making sure the world doesn't miss it.
We're not just here to talk about impact. We're here to be part of it.
Join the movement - from poverty to prosperity
The match closes at the end of campaign week. Every dollar given before then is doubled. You are not donating to a cause, you are seeding an enterprise that is already working, led by a community building its own future.
Give before the match closes →CONTACT US
1050 Connecticut Ave NW Unit 66235
Washington DC 20035
Tel: (202) 495-1202
Email: info@codespa-america.org
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