The Story of Senobia´s Environmentally Conscious Ice Cream Shop

Adopting an Environmental-Friendly Lens to Economic Empowerment

The Pathways to Wellbeing, Empowerment and Resilience for Adolescents and Youth (POWER 4 AY) is accompanying young people in Albania, Bolivia, Nepal and Uganda who are empowered along transformative pathways towards success and self-fulfillment.  The Programme is committed to promoting a more sustainable life by fostering participants´ awareness of the world´s most challenging environmental problems, including climate change, awareness of their personal impact, and motivation to take action to find solutions at the personal, professional and civic level. 

From awareness to knowledge and onto action, the Programme´s efforts to support successful transitions to decent work include the nurturing of green jobs.  Senobia Lázaro is an inspiring example of a young person leading the change she wants to see and has established the first ice cream parlour in Bolivia to be ecologically certified by the National Service of Agricultural Health and Food Safety.  Now 23 years old, Senobia has been a part of Save the Children projects since she was 16 participating in empowering processes for life skills, sexual and reproductive health and livelihoods.  

Of rural origin, Senobia saw the impacts of climate change and began looking for solutions as when her family and community struggled due to drought. “When I was little my parents had their livestock and sowed the land.  I remember that the first years we produced a lot but with the passing of the years the potatoes became smaller and had a different flavor.  There came a point when the potato was like a bean, extremely small, and I was worried.  For me that was a great impact and I saw my mother's sad face.  I used to go to the community meetings where people complained that there was a drought, potatoes did not produce, people cried. I was 7 years old and already in my mind I was looking for a solution.” 

Senobia´s venture captures a lot of attention from an expectant clientele.  “We are the first ice cream parlor in Bolivia that has ecological certification. Our vision is to produce organic ice cream without damaging the ecosystems, free from pesticides and of wild origin. What Mother Nature gives us without us giving her so much effort, and from what we plant she gives us many products” explains Senobia.  “It is not only the ice cream but it is what is behind the ice cream, inside the ice cream and what is included in each ice cream process.” 

A creator at core, she has developed demanded flavors from unusual ingredients which are chosen for their sustainable sourcing and nutritional content. “The first flavor was zucchini and black and yellow carob because my mother sold them in her community and pollution and climate change have had a huge impact on that sector”.  Other ingredients include carob whistle, amaranth and mushrooms, one of her best-sellers.   

Today, Senobia´s Ice Cream parlor is taking off, expanding as she heads determinant towards her big dreams.  She has stability and projections which she direly lacked growing up.  “My parents lived in the countryside and I stayed in the city with my brothers.  Someone like my father from the countryside always says “I wish my son a better life than mine and in the city there are more opportunities" but children also need their parents, love and a plate of food.  I was 14 and my little brothers were even younger and they left us without a kitchen, we cooked over wood but we didn't have a single potato and when we didn't produce we had nothing to eat, it was really very sad. At that age, my desire to get ahead in life was so great that I clung to life and began to study gastronomy. Every night they asked us for ingredients, an onion, a carrot to make a dish and I didn't have any.  To pay for the studies, in the morning I would teach other children as a substitute, and at night I studied and in the afternoon I went to school” shares Senobia. 

“My little brothers were very small, 7 and 8 and I had to support them.  I have seen this in other families and that is why I do not want more children to suffer. For that reason, when I buy a product, for example, it is not a simple carob tree, it is a carob tree that has a lot of history behind it. Mothers and their smallest child to the oldest, they go and collect that carob tree in the field so that they have a dignified life.” 

Senobia´s commitment to the environment is matched by her commitment to help other people.  Today she trains and employs single mothers, buys natural products from women in her community and works with more than 400 community members on tree planting initiatives each year.  “We have a mushroom ice cream where we work with more than 400 community members and each year we have the goal of planting a thousand pine trees so that Mother Nature regenerates naturally and we give it that space and the life it deserves. Under those pine trees the land is fertilized and naturally gives us those fungi.”   

Senobia joined Save the Children´s projects since she was 16, first participating in a previous phase to the POWER 4 AY which particularly strengthened her Life Skills.  In this process, Save the Children works with young people towards their own goals and aspirations on decisions guided by a healthy self-esteem, consciousness and responsibility.  This contributes to successful transitions to adulthood through the development of capacities, opportunities and support of their social and community environment. This foundational process was determinant for Senobia to establish her life plan and nurture her entrepeneural spirit.   

With the POWER 4 AY Project Senobia found the support she needed for her business ideas through vocational and entrepreneurial skills formation and technical and material support which catapulted her initiative to a very competitive and rentable business.  Although the support with materials, marketing and networking were essential, what was most valuable was the training on economic empowerment: how to run a business, analyze cost structures, and all the details she needed to know to find competitive advantage.  Also, with the Project´s team she found caring and personal support that accompanied her throughout the whole process.  Today, a young business woman, employer and mother, Senobia has left behind a difficult past and has a very bright  future with a strong commitment to her ideals.  “I feel more committed to the environment and to the communities with which we work. It is a principle of life.”