D&M Cotton Sugar Award

Category Winners

Defense of Human Ideals.

IDEALS ENTREPRENEURS AWARDS 2022

D&M Algodones de Azúcar. Es un emprendimiento de dos personas discapacitadas, que de manera extraordinaria utilizar a cuatro personas con la misma condición. Ante la escasez de ofertas de empleo para ellos, Mauricio Echeverri (persona ciega) y David (con discapacidad motriz) decidir emprender, hace un año tienen una máquina que produce algodones de azúcar con ella se auto emplean y crean trabajo para sus amigos en condición de discapacidad.

WINNING ENTREPRENEURSHIP CATEGORY:

DEFENSE OF HUMAN IDEALS:

D & M Cotton Candy. Mauricio Echeverri Echeverri and David Diaz Gómez. (Will receive special recognition: Janeth Saldarriaga Castaño)

Janeth Saldarriaga will receive special recognition for her support of this undertaking from her work at the center for inclusion and attention to diversity in El Carmen de Viboral, which she received with 32 disabled people subscribed to aid programs and delivered 12 years later with 540 active members. A community that helps each other to overcome their disability, as is the case with this undertaking.

The awards and checks will be delivered on January 21 at the ceremony to be held in Rionegro Antioquia.

Interview with the winners:

What is the contribution to the entrepreneurship community?

Seek inclusive spaces and work environments for people with disabilities, as this is one of the most difficult issues for this population.

What stand out from your business model and business purpose?

What we highlight the most is that this enterprise is designed for the employability of people with disabilities, who are the ones who carry out the entire process from manufacturing to marketing and it is through this that they can obtain their own resources, generating autonomy and independence. towards themselves.

What human ideals do I always defend in my business environment?

that all people are treated equally regardless of what type of disability they have, that we are all equal and can develop our talents and abilities.

In the attached file, the entrepreneurship project D y M Algodones is developed more widely.

THE STORY OF D&M COTTON CANDY

“AN ENTERPRISE OF INCLUSION”

Currently in the Municipality of El Carmen de Viboral there are approximately 1451 people in a situation of Disability (Registry of Location and Characterization of the Population with Disabilities) in both urban and rural areas. From there, the attention to this social group fundamentally starts, generating comprehensive attention programs that make it possible to have more opportunities both in the social and labor spheres. Coordination has been sought in an intersectoral manner with the sole purpose of promoting the social and labor inclusion of the Population with Disabilities through different offers, both for the minor population and the adult population with some type of disability.

D and M “Cottons of sugar arises as one of the undertakings as a result of the various trainings that have been generated for the group of users that are part of the Inclusion Center:

• Food handling
• Attention and customer service.
• cooking workshop etc.

The year 2020 brought us many challenges and many people struggled to put into practice ideas or dreams that had been postponed for a long time, that’s how D and M “Cotton Sugar emerged”, Mauricio Echeverri and David Díaz, who for some time they had worked with third parties selling cotton candy, they thought of starting their own business and acquiring the machine, which was not an easy thing, since it was quite expensive and in times of pandemic things did not look very good, however, like many in this country Using a loan, we managed to obtain the machine at the end of 2020, a difficult time to start a business, since the pandemic caused many closures and it was very difficult to work.

What Mauricio and David had thought was that this undertaking had to be developed only by people with disabilities and that was the plus they were going to bet on, in addition to being the dream, especially of Mauricio, thinking that the people with disabilities also have the right to work and receive their own money, that is why the people who started working were people with disabilities from El Carmen de Viboral and the dream began to come true, in the midst of their own difficulties of the pandemic, the closures, the quarantines and how difficult it was to obtain any type of permits due to the current situation that was presented.

Overcoming all these difficulties and these barriers D and M cottons of Sugar, began to consolidate in the Municipality of El Carmen de Viboral with people with disabilities, working, although not formally, but obtaining their own resources, resources that at team of entrepreneurs help them to buy their own things, their personal items and even sometimes cover basic needs in their homes.

Today, a year has passed since D and M cotton candy began, and although it has not been easy and there have been difficulties, the reality is that it has been satisfying to see how people with disabilities in the Municipality are integrated into a Laboral life. Understand that people with disabilities also have a lot to give and can work and do many tasks well done and with good performance. It also remains to ask why these opportunities are often not generated elsewhere. People with disabilities have many talents, abilities, skills and abilities to integrate into working life.

Every weekend 6 people with disabilities work in “D and M cotton candy”, manufacturing, packing and marketing the delicious cotton that we have all tasted in the main parks of any municipality, you can find many cotton candy, but these they have something very special: they are prepared, manufactured, packaged and distributed by people with disabilities who add a secret and different touch to this handmade product that is already delicious. In addition to mixing the LOVE with which it is prepared and the WANTS that we put into it to get ahead and be able to get our own money, that makes D and M’s cotton candy have a special flavor, a secret touch that no cotton has of sugar that can be found elsewhere.

That is D and M cotton candy, a dream of 2 people that today has become the income for 6 people that, although it is not a lot of income, it is definitely income that can brighten the lives of these people who have very few opportunities in the labor market and that are enjoyed by residents and visitors to Carmen de Viboral.

D and M cotton candy starts this project under the principles of enabling:

• Teamwork
• Solidarity
• Perseverance
• Employability
• Equal opportunities
• Equity and as a guiding principle
• Inclusion of people with disabilities.

The projection that D and M cotton candy has is the employability of more people with disabilities, in addition to generating more striking styles in the production of cotton.