The Innovation Gente Nueva

Gente Nueva is the umbrella organization for five distinctive programs. Each one of them has achieved ground-breaking success in its respective field.

Un Kilo de Ayuda (One Kilo of Help) was set up to fight malnutrition in children under 5 years of age. It is not “just another food program”, but supplies carefully balanced packages to 26,000 children in rural Mexico every two weeks. Each child’s weight and height gain is recorded and analyzed using the latest management information system, InfoKilo. Of the children starting out with high risk malnutrition, only 6% remain severely malnourished after 11 months in the program. Anemia is cured in 89% percent of the children after the same time period. With the help of leading nutrition experts, Un Kilo de Ayuda is constantly improving the composition of the package and the targeting strategy.

Un Kilo de Ayuda is also running three hospitals and clinics, treating around 78,000 patients a year. Before the hospitals were handed over to Un Kilo de Ayuda, they were 90% subsidized by grants. Within 5 years, Un Kilo de Ayuda has been able to make them operationally self-sufficient. The goal is to provide a replicable model to public and private entities, demonstrating that hospitals can cover their costs and still benefit the poorest population groups.

Jose Ignacio Avalos is also the founder of Compartamos, the fastest growing and largest microfinance institution in Latin America with around 250,000 clients. The organization has been a pioneer in not only proving that “the poor are credit-worthy”, but that the “microfinance industry is investment-worthy”. Compartamos has a Standard & Poors rating of A+. Around 45% of the capital stems from local bonds and 30% from local commercial banks.

The latest program is Mi Tienda, a new kind of wholesaler supplying small rural shops with products at lower prices and in smaller quantities than the traditional wholesalers. The idea for Mi Tienda was triggered by the observation that the rural poor have to pay much higher prices for the daily products at their local shops than the urban population with access to large discount stores.

Gente Nueva is also working to support Mexico’s fledgling civil society sector. It has been highly innovative in raising funds through card sales, ATM machines and its product lines from the general public, making it one of the most recognized brands in the country.