Primizia Bakery and Training Center

In 2009, UMBRAGROUP pledged to fund the construction of a bakery in Uthiru, near Nairobi. The aim was to provide not just food but also job opportunities for the local community. We worked on the front line of this ambitious project, constructing the building and coordinating transport, installations, and the presentation, which was personally organized by UMBRAGROUP employees along with its CEO, Valter Baldaccini, who was in Nairobi to visit children sponsored by the company.

The materials had been donated by a Focolare Movement member who owned a bakery in Switzerland. Two exceptional volunteers also got personally involved: former UMBRAGROUP employees who had retired lent the project their professional expertise, contributing to the completion of the building's electrical system and the installation of all the machinery. While work was being done on the building, two young people from Nairobi attended a training course in Switzerland to prepare them for working in the bakery and training other young people in turn, in what would become the Primizia Training Center.

The first customers of the bakery were the schools where the children in UMBRAGROUP's sponsorship program studied; they bought the bread that would be served to all the pupils during mealtimes. The project was coordinated in cooperation with La Gomena ONLUS and the Focolare Movement. Over time, difficulty in maintaining the machinery forced the community to close the center.