At CEN, our goal is to empower the members of rural communities to create and successfully pursue sustainable economic opportunities. Our work stems from the experiences, observations and conclusions drawn from years of work concerning economic development by CEN's core members. Since 2001, Bob Bortner, founder and Executive Director of CEN, has been implementing projects directed at improving the quality of life in numerous rural locations around the world including India, South Africa and Brazil. He has witnessed firsthand many attempts to provide rural communities with what they need to end the cycle of poverty, but one consistent theme throughout CEN's experiences has been the vast amount of unrealized potential within these communities. The power of information and technology can be an excellent tool for overcoming this physical and economic isolation, but the truth is, access alone is not enough for these citizens to realize their potential.

For example, during a visit to Suruacá, a small community in the Brazilian Amazon, Bob attended a meeting with a women's group. The women met to discuss the kitchen that had been installed by a German foundation in an attempt to assist the community to use seasonal fruit, like mangoes, to make various food products such as candies and marmalades. When asked why the kitchen wasn't being used, Bob was confronted with excuses. "It's too hot in there," complained one woman, while the rest nodded in agreement. While more excuses were discussed, one woman finally spoke out and said, "We know how to make doces (sweets), but what we don't know is how to sell them once we make them. We don't even know what to make and who will buy it." Bob then asked what they planned to do about the problem, and the woman responded, "We're waiting for someone to tell us what to do."

Following the women's meeting, Bob was pulled aside by Djalma Lima, a resident of Suruacá with whom Bob had been working with for some time. "I just got it Bob," he said, "We can manage our development ourselves; we don't need you or other organizations to do it for us." Situations such as these, in which rural communities become dependent on foreign aid, are the very issues that counteract sustainable development. CEN is therefore working to help communities solve existing problems independently, while equipping them to overcome their struggles in the future.

Putting Ideas into Action

CEN was officially founded in late 2004, by Bob and a few of his close associates. After Bob's earlier work in several communities along the Brazilian Amazon, in which he oversaw the Amazon Telecenter Project involving the installation of two solar-powered telecenters, the team wanted to see real and lasting improvements that stemmed from the community members becoming empowered to pursue their development initiatives themselves. For the first several years, CEN focused on the Amazon Prototype Project, which focused on developing an effective ways to achieve these results. During this time, Bob and other CEN board members made regular visits to mentor key individuals in several communities as they attempted to address development initiatives. Two Johns Hopkins graduate students from the Nitze Advanced School of International Studies also interned in the villages for several months to assist with this project. In addition to this, CEN hosted a team of MBA students from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania who spent a semester evaluating Couro Ecológico, or "ecological leather," and making specific suggestions for the workers' association. This project deepened our commitment to these communities and demonstrates our approach to sustainable development, which encourages residents to solve their community problems independently. In this way, it is our mission at CEN to democratize information, so that all citizens of the world are given agency within the economic pyramid.

In May 2008, we began the cCLEAR pilot program which developed and tested an effective learning approach to implement CEN's vision, called PRATICAR. cCLEAR's focus is to identify and build the basic skills residents need as a strong foundation for subsequent mentoring and training efforts. The premise of PRATICAR and CEN is not to simply give participants material aid, which is only useful to a certain extent, but to help residents determine how to harness the resources they need to thrive in the long run. The pilot was a success and participants not only met the goals they set for themselves, but developed important soft skills such as problem solving, persistence, self-confidence, critical thinking and discipline.

Future Plans

CEN plans to expand upon the success of the cCLEAR pilot by replicating the program in other communities around the region so that many more individuals can benefit. In an effort to execute a comprehensive cCLEAR program, we are attempting to implement a series of smaller projects in the same communities where we are most likely to secure funding, given our current level of resources. For example, one project we're pursuing would strengthen the worker-owner association in Maguary that produces purses made from locally-harvested rubber. Other projects would include efforts to foster entrepreneurism in tourism, raise chickens and increase woodworking.

The scope of CEN's projects is continually growing. Once we have successfully demonstrated the impact of our work in the Brazilian Amazon, we intend to bring cCLEAR to other parts of Brazil, and eventually expand to the rest of the world, possibly including Mozambique, India and Nepal.