Directed by: Nicole Opper
Granted on: 2009-06-01
Grant: I Believe in You Grant
The Ipo Boys will follow three boys growing up at IPODERAC, which is a community in Mexico for kids were were abandoned or living on the street. It's also a thriving social enterprise at the forefront of emerging sustainable business practices with social change. Some of the Ipo boys are estranged from parents who were physically abusive or addicted to drugs and alcohol, and others don't have living family members to speak of. But all of them have become part of a brilliant social experiment that combines education with work. Each day after school, 72 Ipo boys can be found cutting the alfalfa or milking the goats to create IPODERAC's award-winning artisan cheese, which is sold in Mexico's most elegant restaurants and hotels. They are also running workshops in natural soap-making, carpentry and organic vegetable gardening, all designed to give these boys a sense of responsibility and self-worth in a world that says they don't belong. The profits from these ventures put food on the table, clothes on their backs, and money in their pockets. Over the course of a year we will follow their journeys as they come of age in this inspiring environment, shattering everyone's expectations of them and defining family for themselves.