She had experience in business and marketing in international companies, but after the death of her husband, Helena Cyrner felt that she would like to do work that makes more sense. She started working on the production of fresh pasta Pasta Fidli and combined her next career path with employing disabled people. He talks about his project with Jan Hrušovský in the Aktuálně.cz podcast
“I started helping the Náruč association, which provides social services, and with that came the idea of a social enterprise,” explains Helena Cyrnerová in the podcast. She started a business together with her daughter.
“We were looking for an activity or production that would be as easy as possible for the disabled. We thought, for example, of a confectionery or a bakery, but in the end we started making fresh pasta,” says Cyrnerová.
For the first time and a year, the two ladies were preparing a project and raising funds. Several sponsors contributed to the launch of the establishment in Mníšek pod Brdy. Pasta Fidli has also decided to use money from European Union grants.
Grants are the key for the company, without them it would not be possible to buy the first machines or a car to deliver goods. Later, thanks to European money, Pasta Fidli was able to grow and expand its range with gnocchi, ravioli or pesto.
At the same time, these funds enabled them to develop disabled employees. There are currently five of them working in the company. They have thus learned to work with modern technologies and today, in addition to production, they can also handle order processing on a computer.
In the podcast, Helena Cyrnerová also talked about the idea of employing the disabled, the selection of employees and the organization of their work, also described whether it is possible to maintain operations without grant money and how the current coronavirus crisis affected their business.
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