Forming Relationships With Fair Trade

We recently met with our new group in the Chichicastengo area –  to see the products that they finished weaving from the first order we gave them.  It takes many orders and visits and forming a close relationship of trust and friendship in order to really help a group.

This is the first visit where the women were finally a little more relaxed and talked more about the products they had made and about the new order they received.  We spent considerable time talking about the need for quality and explaining that we will be unable to sell their textiles for them without a very high quality of  weaving and perfect embroidery. Some of the items were not acceptable and will need to be reworked but others were excellent quality so we are very pleased with our visit to these ladies.

With each new group it takes time to get the orders right and the quality excellent but it is so rewarding to see the women have more dignity and pride that people around the world like and will buy their textiles. We look forward to many more years in working with the ladies in this group!  Just wish I knew the Queche language!

Textiles and a Lake……….. Beautiful Blues!!

San Antonio Palopo sits perched on the side of a mountain overlooking the beautiful Lake Atitlan.

Our artisan group  in this village is known for the beautiful textiles in shades of blues, greens and purples.  The women’s blouses are made of these textiles as well as many of their home textiles.

We have been working with this group for about 2 years and are helping them with more orders so they are able to earn enough money to educate and care for their children.  This group lost much in the mudslides during the tropical storm in 2010 — family members, homes, their looms and sewing machines and so much more.

Today’s meeting was spent working on orders to be shipped in a few months.  They are such wonderful weavers and are capable of making very unique handcrafts.

We hope to help more in the future with a sewing center or sewing machines and more educational opportunities for their children.

One of the unique accessories that the women in this group wear is the cintas or belts/ bands around their hair and heads.

The hair bands are wrapped around their long hair — into a long ponytail then the long wrapped ponytail is wound around their head and held secure with the ends of the bands.  They rarely ever leave their house without their hair put up this way.

Education And More will have some of their unique belts and hair bands available soon in the webstore at our website.

Fair Trade Benefits = Joy With A New Skill

Mikela is a young mother that has become a very proficient seamstress in the classes that we provided last fall and she is excited for more classes this spring.  She has a 2 month old baby and it is difficult for her to practice her sewing in the daytime so she comes to the sewing center at night after her baby is asleep and practices sewing.

Her sewing skill is incredible for the short amount of time that she has been sewing but she hopes to improve even more because she knows how valuable a skill it will be for her in her lifetime to be able to earn money with her sewing.

Fair Trade helps all the artisans earn a fair income on their work and Education And More also gives many extra benefits to our artisans.  These sewing centers were begun because of generous donors as well as a result of sales of Fair Trade handcrafts from the artisans.  Because of the sales of their handcrafts, we are able to give these extra benefits to help educate the artisans in many areas of their lives — business skills, sewing skills, educating their children, better nutrition for the family.

4 Generations Working Together

It is not often you find 4 generations of women still working together in everyday chores but at one of our artisans groups that is indeed what happens frequently.  While the mission team was busy building their new sewing center building the women were busy making delicious lunches, caring for children, etc. One group of women included daughters, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother.

Big sister carries little sister on her back while mom, grandmother and great-grandmother do the cooking.

Mother and grandmother make tortillas on the wood burning stove.

Grandmother washes her hair in a free moment!

Great grandmother, grandmother and mother make tamalitos for the big lunch.  They all sit on the dirt floor of the kitchen and work away– making approximately 80-90 of the delicious tamalitos. Great grandmother is 94 years old but still very a very vital and active part of the family.

Great grandmother lives about 1/4 mile away with another daughter but walks the dirt path to help out whenever she can.

Grandmother and two of her daughters.  Like women from generations past these women continue sharing their knowledge with the next generation — from cooking, to child rearing to weaving.

We have been working with this artisan group for about 4 years and they are such a warm and giving group of women it is a delight to be able to help them!

Learn more about Artesana’s T’zaput on our website.

Backstrap Looms Come Down the Mountain.

Juan and his wife, Francisca, slowly make their way down the mountain, walking nearly 2 1/2 hours to take their handcarved backstrap looms to a local market.  It is a slow and tedious trek but they make the  long walk twice a week so they can sell their backstrap looms, which gives them money to live on.

With the wooden looms strapped to his back with ropes, Juan carries the looms down the mountain and hopes to sell as many as possible to help earn money for his family. He is a small, slight man but carries about 40 pounds of looms on his back for this long walk.

We met Juan and Francisca about 2 years ago and the looms we purchase from him gives him a fair wage for each hour of labor in making them.  It has made a difference for his wife and himself and their children.

Today was our meeting with Juan and Francisca to talk more about the looms and pick up our order that will be shipped the States. They are a delightful couple and it was then we realized that Juan wasn’t the only one with a load on his back — his wife had their 3 month old baby in a a wrap on her back for the entire distance too.  What a hard-working couple that does all that is possible to help their family.

Fair Trade Benefits = School Supplies For Students

Today was the meeting with our group, Artesana’s T’zaput, to give out school supplies for all the children of the women in the group who are in school.  We had many eager children and smiling moms picking up the book bag of supplies.

The entire group came to the meeting with all the children — all 32 children.  Their school starts in another week and the children are really excited about returning to school.  These children don’t have all the activities available to them that kids in the States have so returning to school is something they look forward to after their vacation break during November and December.

We are accepting donations for the Educational Support Fund to help the children of more artisan groups.