Mi Pequeña Farmacia (My Little Pharmacy) is one of the projects currently being developed at the Fundación Paraguaya. Microfranchise is a tool that is being used to reach the goal the Fundación Paraguaya has set to itself: eradicate poverty, in its multiple aspects.
This project consists in the selling of a kit containing basic pharmaceutical products to clients of the entrepreneurial women’s committee program. The kit will contain first-need products such as disinfectant, Band-Aid, antifebrile, headache medications etc. Fundación Paraguaya is trying to supply those women with quality products at a low price, by getting pharmaceutical companies involved in the project. The women that will decide to participate in the program (called Promotoras de Salud – Health Promoters) will receive a loan to buy the products and a training on how to use the kit from the Fundación Paraguaya’s loan officers. The women can then resell the kits to their peers in the committee or in their local community at a higher, yet still competitive, price and make a profit out of it.
First Aid Kit
The project serves a dual goal: give a new source of income to the members of women’s committees and increase their health level as well as the health level of the people to which they will re sell the kits.
Healthcare is still a big issue in Paraguay, where 81.6% of the population doesn’t have a health insurance and only 31% of the population in the lower income quintile seeks medical advice when ill. This project will not only provide drugs and other pharmaceutical products, but also a first aid training on how to use them properly and how to heal wounds. This is expected to have a strong impact in areas where health services are scarce or not affordable.
The intensive training that “Health Promoters” will receive will stress the importance of seeking medical advice in the event of sickness.
