Since 2023, Repsol has developed an initiative that seeks to promote social transformation and economic development in some of the most vulnerable communities on the Lima coast. Ventanilla, Santa Rosa, Ancón, Aucallama and Chancay are the first communities to benefit from technical training, business advice, initial financing and support.
To delve into Impulsared’s field of action, Perú21 developed a Thematic Table with Luis Vásquez, director of Institutional Relations at Repsol and Daniela Osores, general manager of the Food Bank of Peru.
The localities that are part of Impulsared are basically made up of mothers, as it has a very specific gender approach. “What we try is to provide the necessary tools so that communities can undertake. We are providing training, helping in the formalization, we are giving them the seed capital they need to start this venture and we have also committed to monitoring for the first two years. We are happy because we started last year as a pilot. This pilot already has seven companies, seven ventures operating and that are already generating business,” explains Vásquez.
This year Repsol has set a more ambitious goal: formalize 45 ventures with an investment of S/15 million. Since its launch, Impulsared has managed to benefit 1,300 people. In 2024 it is projected to impact more than 10 thousand people.
The dream of your own business
It all started in 2022, as a result of the dialogue between the company and the communities. What was heard most among the families of merchants and mothers, who worked in soup kitchens and markets, were requests for help to start a business. From this need, Impulsared was born, which implemented a structure to start the dream business. “Some are restaurants, others are sewing workshops, like Kallpa Clothing. “They are ventures that are destined for the locality and the idea is to generate economic microclimates that generate wealth and that it stays in those districts.”
Kallpa Clothing is a special case. It is made up of women who received training in the sewing trade and received seed capital to buy their machinery. They use the uniforms that Repsol’s service stations and industrial facilities no longer need. That is, the fabrics are given a second life, making bags, pencil cases and other accessories. This work “mixes the intention of creating a venture, but also has a whole concept of sustainability behind it, of circular economy,” points out the Repsol manager.
Impulsared focuses on the issue of product quality. “For a project to be successful, there must be quality, good customer service, and you must know how to listen. “All of that is part of the management tools we provide.”
Another interesting case is the Sabrozón Norteño chicken shop, which emerged in the citadel of Pachacutec, in Ventanilla, where workshops were offered. There, the climate of trust generated made several participants come together to form a company. “They are older people who had a hopeless outlook,” says Vásquez, “but suddenly with everything Impulsared has provided, they have seen that there is hope to implement their dreams. This, mixed with nutritional training, has been the perfect fusion to create a restaurant that is now having success in the northern area of Lima.”
Solidarity synergy
One of Impulsared’s strengths is its allies. Like the Food Bank. Repsol had already been working with them in the canteens, but it expanded to create and reinforce a virtuous circle in the locations where Impulsared works. Daniela Osores, from the Food Bank, says that “for 10 years we have been fighting against hunger and although we work mainly with companies in the food sector, we are verifying that they do not necessarily have to be from that sector to join. Repsol is one of the examples. We have a very nice project called Fuertes como el Hierro. It started in 2023 and has the purpose of being able to include fish acquired from artisanal fishermen in the diet of the dining rooms and the pots.”
Since its launch in 2023, Impulsared has managed to benefit 1,300 people. In 2024 it is projected to impact more than 10 thousand.
The idea generated a double impact. It not only provides access to nutritional foods to Ventanilla’s more than 80 dining rooms and soup kitchens, but also knowledge of how to store, prepare and combine foods to enhance their nutritional effect. “We are promoting nutrition in a community where food insecurity rates are very high, where there are many children with anemia.
Thanks to the alliance we have with Repsol, through Impulsared, these organizations were chosen with their business ideas that are already applying the tools learned. Osores emphasizes the essential work together with the business sector, grassroots organizations and other organizations, such as the Food Bank, to reach the objectives set.
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