Luc Verelst founds Solid after an international career in real estate, choosing to give back. Early years support NGO projects across several countries and domains— from clean water to education, healthcare, early childhood development and human rights.

Daughter Lyn Verelst takes over, and Solid narrows its focus to one place for greater impact. Ayacucho is selected — one of Peru's poorest regions, still recovering from the Shining Path conflict, but meeting key criteria: stability, feasibility, and potential for lasting change. In 2026 Solid Peru is officially registered, forming the base for the organisation's work in the region ever since. 

Solid shifts from aid to training, convinced that skills and income are what break poverty across generations. In Ayacucho’s poorest rural communities, it coaches farmers to strengthen dairy, tara, avocado and quinoa production. Role play proves one of the most effective tools: practice that sticks, not a one-off workshop. 

Farmers become more productive, but family life barely improves. So Solid turns its focus to women and children. A Healthy Families team works on simple housing improvements, clean water use and family relationships.

A deeper understanding of the region’s challenges leads to a programme for teenage mothers, with midwives and nurses making home visits. The team works on self-esteem and breaks taboos around sexuality. It is later joined by a shelter for girls affected by violence and a prevention programme.

Solid invests in property in Ayacucho. The rental income, and later the profit from selling some of it, helps fund its programmes for the long term. - foto VIA VIA 

When the skills are there but the market isn’t, Solid builds it, just as it did for the farmers. It opens a knitting workshop in Ayacucho that gives safe, stable work first to teenage mothers, then to women from disadvantaged backgrounds in the surrounding neighbourhoods. An on-site school and daycare let them work without worrying who’s looking after their children. The lesson is clear: when women earn, the whole family moves forward.

Better harvests only help if farmers can sell them, so Solid builds the economy around them. Montefino’s cheese factory buys local milk and doubles as a training centre. Makipura, the first rural microfinance institution in Ayacucho, lends to farmers. Renova’s farm shops offer a trustworthy alternative to toxic products. Not every venture lasts, but Makipura is later successfully sold.

The Peru workshop shows what safe, stable work can do for women and their families. Solid sets out to bring that model to other countries. In Kenya, it partners with Hadithi, a non-profit that helps rural women basket weavers earn a decent income together. 

It started small: in an apartment, a few women from nearby villages with no craft experience. First we tried knitting, then master weavers taught us to weave. The team grew, the apartment became a proper workshop, and recycled sari fabric turned into handwoven, crocheted and kantha-stitched pieces. 

A sales office opens in Belgium, selling crafts from Peru, Kenya and India to brands worldwide.

Years of working with farmers teach Solid that young people are the ones who drive change. They try new ideas sooner and bring their families along. So Solid starts training rural youth in farming and entrepreneurship, helping them build a future in their own rural communities.

The quinoa farmers Solid has trained since 2007 need a reliable buyer. So Solid co-founds Solid Food with a Belgian partner: a short chain that takes organic quinoa from Ayacucho to Europe, from the field through processing and export to food companies and supermarkets.

In 2022 Solid tested the B2C strategy, under the TalesBySolid brand, which grew consumer reach and impact. But the B2C channel was cost-intensive, and at the end of 2023, Solid made the call to close it and focus fully on the more scalable B2B model.

After 12 years of running a shelter for teenage mothers and girls affected by violence, Solid hands it over to the Peruvian government (INABIF). It’s what Solid worked towards: Solid steps in where support is missing, and steps back once the state can take over. Solid keeps supporting the shelter with training and expertise, while turning its focus to new gaps.

After almost 10 meaningful years, the India workshop is transferred to a local partner in 2025 — the model had proven commercially challenging to sustain at the standard we require, and difficult to manage from Belgium. In 2026, Solid and its India partner conclude the collaboration, though the partner continues the work directly. We remain proud of what was built there, and continue to focus our craft production in Peru and Kenya.

Companies in the region now choose Solid as a trusted partner and its youth training approach as a model for their CSR programmes. Since September 2025, our impact went up times 13, reaching over 650 participants instead of around 50 a year. Alongside the youth training, which still focuses on the poorest areas, Solid now trains adults across Ayacucho, Cusco and Huancavelica in entrepreneurship, healthy family life and value chains such as cocoa, avocado, dairy and guinea pigs.