NGO Mama Alice

At NGO Mama Alice we believe in changing Peruvian communities from the inside out for the better, forever. As far as we are concerned, education is a very important step towards battling poverty.

Women from rural areas have little or no access to (vocational) training and the labor market. The Elevate Prize would enable us to offer 240 young women a very practical in-house training in setting up a small hospitality business, which gives them the opportunity to generate income and have a good and safe future in their own village. In addition, as tourists will visit their villages, other businesses there will also benefit.

The Elevate Prize would enable the Mama Alice multidisciplinary team to train several groups during two years. In the follow-up phase, the prize money would provide childcare for them and allow us to visit the women for support and purchase cell phones for all participants so we can stay in touch long distance as well. We also are looking forward to use the MIT Solve network to help support these women and their businesses, so that they can continue to develop. 

Frederique Kallen studied Music Therapy at the Conservatory of Maastricht in the Netherlands and worked in various countries in Latin Amerika and Afrika.

From 2003 to 2004 she took care of her mother Alice, who suffered from ALS. After her mother’s death, Frederique needed to turn her pain into something positive and started NGO Mama Alice in Ayacucho, Peru.

She gathered a local team; currently the board and management team consist of women only. Girls and young women are inspired and learn to believe that they too can fulfill a higher position one day. Together with her team, she tries to create the best possible environment for underprivileged children and young people to develop their full potential and contribute to a better future for themselves and their communities.

Frederique is driven by a strong sense of urgency and justice, and together with her team, aims for sustainable change. She envisions to empower the rural women and enable them to be role-models in their families and villages. In the next ten years she aims to train 1,000 women and help them become financially independent.

Frederique won many international awards such as the World of Children Education award and Graham Maher award.

South America is the most urbanized continent in the world. Nearly 80% of the population lives in urban areas. The rest lives in poor conditions in rural areas. The progress of women in Latin America and the Caribbean has been impressive in recent decades. However, women are still 30% less likely than men to be employed, and more likely to be poor.

Especially for teenage mothers and women in rural areas, access to education and the labor market or becoming self-employed is very difficult. If they move to the city, they face many dangers, such as sexual or financial exploitation.

The Covid pandemic has worsened the situation. According to their estimates, UNICEF claims that 1.2 million Peruvian minors could fall into poverty in 2020. Children and adolescents from rural households would be the most affected.

Our vocational courses adapt to the needs of society and have evolved over the years. We educated more than 500 youngsters (> 50% female). After completing the training, 80% got jobs or started their own businesses.

As a first, we build a hospitality training center (HTC) in a small, rural village that attracts many tourists, about one hour away from Ayacucho. Here, we train youngsters to become cook, waiter or bartender. Students learn to interact with real guests, which is invaluable experience for young people with their background. The profits that the restaurant generates will partly flow back to NGO Mama Alice, making our charity more sustainable and less dependent of donations.

Our practical vocational courses are unique because they are specifically designed for underprivileged groups and in addition, our hospitality training program, was developed specifically for women from rural areas. 

During the Covid pandemic and the lockdown, we gained valuable experience in long-distance coaching. Together with our training experience, this will enable us to train rural women in the city and offer a follow-up in the countryside via telephone.

Like in our current work, we will also offer psychosocial counseling and extend the help to members of the villages if necessary. This help is needed as many rural women come from backgrounds that involve domestic and/or sexual violence. 

We believe that education is an important step towards breaking the poverty cycle. Since 2005 we have supported children in elementary and secondary schools. In addition, we have been supporting adolescents and youth to provide a better future for themselves by furthering their education at college, university or a vocational training.

Through our long-distance work in 2020 we gained valuable experience and found that training and psychosocial counseling at a distance (by telephone) is possible. 

By extending our work with hospitality trainings to women from rural areas, we help them set up a financially independent life for themselves and allow them to be a role model for their children, but also for other girls in the village. 

Within two years the hospitality training will have a direct impact on 240 women and an indirect impact on 3600 people. (5 people within their own family and per village 2 families consisting of 5 people).