Nurturing dreams

Most entrepreneurs begin their journeys with a dream.

They might dream of creating something new, solving problems, changing circumstances or making a positive impact on the world.

The dream doesn’t have to be big or bold or even complicated to start. The most important thing about dreams is that a person finds the courage to dream at all.

Javier was 13 when he found the courage to dream beyond his current reality.

That was the year he stopped listening when other people said his dreams were too big for someone who was born into poverty as the eldest child of a single mother. That was the year he started believing in himself.

Javier and other children from his community became a part of Emprende Kids, a pilot initiative in Unbound’s Cartagena, Colombia, program. The pilot introduces children from vulnerable communities to tools they’ll need to develop entrepreneurial skills and nurture their creativity.

With this type of foundation at a young age, the children are empowered to be changemakers capable of undertaking both practical and high impact business ventures, and to one day be more competitive in the job market, contributing to their upward mobility.

Teaching children they can aspire to be entrepreneurs

The Emprende Kids (Entrepreneur Children) programming uses both practical and participatory education approaches to develop sponsored children ages 8 through 14 as leaders with 21st-century business skills.

According to Harold Ortiz, coordinator of Unbound’s Cartagena program, the curriculum is broken down into four training periods encompassing a total of 32 classes in 12 months. Programming for and facilitation of Emprende Kids is organized by staff and volunteers — many of whom are current or former students in the Unbound Scholarship Program — referred to as “super trainers.”

Children study 13 characteristics of an entrepreneur, learn terms like “product,” “service” and “market,” and come to recognize the needs of their communities while proposing creative, innovative solutions. They generate ideas for a business project, practice brand positioning and promotion strategies, and learn concepts associated with financial literacy. In the end, they use their ideas and learnings to create a business proposal.

Hands-on learning is incorporated into the training class via dynamic activities that help the children put what they’ve learned into action. For example, one activity might involve the super trainers setting up a simulation where the children role-play purchasing products and learning how to manage business profits.

“Our aim is to provide children with the necessary foundations to become entrepreneurs, and to contribute to their personal and professional growth,” Ortiz said. “With this practical and motivating approach, they develop business ideas, often linked to family businesses.”

Unbound works with all families in the program to help them acquire and use skills that improve their livelihoods, with the goal being that, over time, they come to rely less on Unbound benefits and more on their own activities to generate income, such as entrepreneurship or gainful employment.

Twenty-seven sponsored children from Javier’s community attend Emprende Kids classes along with him at the Unbound Cartagena project office. But Javier's community is only one of eight where Emprende Kids was piloted. Across all communities, over 200 sponsored children participated, attending their classes each week at designated locations throughout Cartagena.

Dairo, 21, is an Unbound scholarship recipient, studying industrial engineering, and a super trainer for Javier’s Emprende Kids classes.

“I have been surprised by the children’s power of conviction, their ability to innovate, dream and imagine and how positively they react to the [curriculum],” Dairo said.

The children begin the program a bit shy and withdrawn, according to Dairo, but quickly realize their potential.

“Nowadays, the majority of children are confident in themselves,” Dairo said. “They speak in public, they are sociable, and they are ready to change their reality.

“These children will contribute to their communities — the best [solutions] always come from the biggest and craziest imaginations. The community has that in their children.

When the best solutions to poverty come from those closest to the problem

Emprende Kids contributes to the Unbound staff's work to instill two specific characteristics from Unbound’s nine program characteristics: economic self-sufficiency and sustainability.

Over 22,000 individuals in Colombia are sponsored through Unbound. According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Colombia has one of the highest levels of poverty, income inequality and labor market informality in Latin America. In a 2018 report in which the OECD compared the social mobility of families in poverty across 30 countries, Colombia was one of the worst performers. The average number of generations needed for people born into poverty to reach the average income level was 11 generations, far below the OECD’s average of 4.5.

Emprende Kids was created by the Cartagena program staff in response to the high number of families completing Unbound’s Goal Orientation powered by Poverty Stoplight survey who expressed the need to learn how to develop more sustainable income-generating activities. This self-assessment survey helps families in Unbound’s programs identify their situations using indicators across six dimensions of poverty and categorizing each as either red (extreme poverty), yellow (poverty) or green (not poverty). The survey helps families prioritize their needs, set goals and create a roadmap to achieve their goals that eventually leads to overcoming poverty.

Poverty Stoplight’s standard dimensions allow Unbound to understand the impact of programs at the global level, and to develop new programs at the community level in response to the similar priorities families identify — programs like Emprende Kids.

In Unbound Cartagena, over 31% of families completing the Poverty Stoplight survey when they first enter the program have red indicators (showing “extreme poverty”) in the dimensions of “income and employment.” Other top dimensions that are in the red include the areas of “education and culture” and “housing and infrastructure.” When families set their goals based on these results, most prioritize making improvements in their living conditions and income and employment opportunities.

“The reason for Emprende Kids begins with feedback we received from the mothers of the sponsored children in their goals and plans for 2024,” Ortiz said. “Their goals revolved around learning socioeconomic strategies that allowed them to strengthen their soft and financial skills, access capital and begin trusting in their own business initiatives to meet their needs.”

Emprende Kids super trainer Dairo said it’s important for children, not just adults, to talk about entrepreneurship topics.

“The world of work is shrinking,” Dairo said. “Creating an awareness and entrepreneurial intelligence in children allows them to grow up to become job creators in their communities.”

While Emprende Kids gives sponsored children the opportunity to learn to become entrepreneurs and discover their leadership potential from childhood, the program also has a lasting impact on the entire family.

Emprende Kids share their knowledge and dreams with their families

Much like a child in the U.S. having a lemonade stand or mowing lawns to earn money, children in Emprende Kids have begun to embrace their entrepreneurial creativity. Dairo has seen Emprende Kids progress to develop business endeavors selling candy, bracelets, popsicles and personalized notebooks, among other things. But one of the greatest impacts of the program is the trickle-down effect the lessons have on the children’s families.

Parents and guardians are engaged with Emprende Kids and are eager to contribute to the development and success of their children in the program, Dairo said. But the children also carry the knowledge they’ve gained home with them.

Juli and Estefanny are both mothers whose small businesses have benefited from the knowledge their children have gained.

Before her child received sponsorship, Juli, who is Javier’s mother, couldn’t find formal employment and was struggling to care for her three children on her own after having just moved to a new community.

“I am grateful to Unbound because they [lifted me up] at a time when I no longer had much strength to continue,” Juli said.

When Juli completed Unbound’s Goal Orientation powered by Poverty Stoplight survey, their family began focusing on making improvements in the areas of income and employment, and housing and health. Juli developed a savings plan and opened a business selling handmade, plant-based hair treatment and hydration products.

Using what he’s learned from Emprende Kids, Javier, now 14, works as a team with his mother, making the sales plans and helping with the marketing of her business. Juli says Javier has a special gift for motivating others and being resilient in the face of adversity.

“Something that Emprende Kids has taught me is that I must trust in myself to reach my goals,” said Javier, who wants to open a pet store one day. “Emprende Kids motivates me to keep going.”

Estefanny is the mother of Thaliana. When Thaliana was sponsored, Estefanny invested part of her sponsorship benefit into starting a community stationery store called “Azul del Mar (Sea Blue),” out of the family’s home.

After Thaliana, 11, joined Emprende Kids, Estefanny said her daughter began showing an interest in helping with the family business.

“She told me how to be an entrepreneur, how to serve customers and how to make them feel welcome so that they would return,” Estefanny said. “She tells me everything about the topics she learns so that I can put them into practice.”

Through her business, Estefanny sells school supplies and offers printing and photocopying services. She started the business with just a few notebooks and pen products. Practicing saving she learned through Unbound, she was eventually able to buy a computer and printer to expand her business services.

Thaliana supports her mother’s business by promoting their products at school, and Estefanny dreams that her daughter can be a successful entrepreneur one day in her own right.

“She tells me, ‘Mommy, we can do whatever we set our minds to,’” Estefanny said.

One of the greatest things Thaliana has learned from Emprende Kids is how to listen to others and how to make a profit from a business product. She practices buying and selling candy at school.

“I learned that if I want to start a business, I can,” Thaliana said. “My dream is to [grow] the stationery store with my mother.”

Graduates of Emprende Kids pilot program have bright futures already

In late November 2024, 111 sponsored children who successfully completed the yearlong Emprende Kids pilot were honored for their accomplishment with a graduation ceremony.

Sixteen of the original 27 children in Javier’s Emprende Kids program completed the full curriculum in September. On graduation day, both Javier and Thaliana were recognized with  their classmates for having a deep commitment to learning.

Ortiz said graduates have an entrepreneurial mindset, embracing the characteristics of entrepreneurial creativity, critical thinking, communication, problem solving, decision-making, teamwork, goal setting and public speaking.

Besides the classroom structure of Emprende Kids, participants throughout the 12 months met local business leaders and participated in various community-wide activities such as “Productivity Corner,” a fair where each Emprende Kid put their business ideas on display, and the “Day of Opportunity,” a business competition where child entrepreneurs had the chance to compete for seed capital for their businesses.

On the Day of Opportunity, 28 business ventures were presented by Emprende Kids — either as individuals or as a group — in competition for the grand prize. They submitted business proposals (complete with brand kits) and creative videos. Seed capital in the amount of $80 USD was awarded to all 28 business ventures, while five ventures were selected as top finalists, and one was awarded the grand prize seed capital of $175 USD. In total, Unbound Cartagena awarded $2,720 USD in seed capital to support Emprende Kids business ventures. Both Javier and Thaliana competed in the Day of Opportunity under their family businesses.

“Through their success stories shared at the [graduation], other children will be inspired to pursue their dreams and will be reminded that it is possible to achieve great things,” Ortiz said.

The success of the pilot shows the commitment of families to embrace Unbound’s nine program characteristics, in particular economic self-sufficiency and sustainability, according to Ortiz.

“These characteristics have set them on the path to one day depend less on the support of Unbound and more on their own capabilities and their potential,” Ortiz said.

Unbound Cartagena will launch the inaugural Emprende Kids program to a new cohort of sponsored children in April 2025 — children waiting to dream like Javier once was.

Now, Javier dreams of many things because he said he understands what it means to fight for what he wants.

“I dream … my dream is that [others] see that I can accomplish things,” Javier said. “I dream of being a great entrepreneur.”

Unbound Field Communications Director Henry Flores, Multimedia Producer/Editor Danika Wolf and Cartagena program staff contributed information and photos for this story.