In 1988, Maya Traditions founder Jane Mintz, an experienced social worker (MSW) and weaver, began working with indigenous women artisans living in poverty in Guatemala. She observed that their skill of backstrap weaving was a chance for them to earn a stable income for their families while working from home doing what they were already good at. Maya Traditions was founded to help these skilled artisans succeed and preserve their cultures through access to a Fair Trade global marketplace. In 2007 Maya Traditions became a Guatemalan Foundation. They provide consistent work for 85 Mayan backstrap weavers and their families. In addition, Maya Traditions strives to improve the artisans’ quality of life by offering assistance in the areas deemed most valuable by the weaving groups.
At the heart of the efforts at Maya Traditions is the improvement of the weaver’s quality of life. Many are faced with poverty and lack basic services. The group strives to pay a fair wage in the local context. They are also committed to helping the weavers with health care and the education of their children, which are priorities expressed by many women. This involves an herbal medicine project and a scholarship program funded by donations. Establishing the Foundation They have recently established their Maya is a means of extending and reinforcing their work on current projects like the herbal medicine project and the scholarship program. As a Guatemalan Foundation they have access to further resources, which will assist them in their aim to create a sustainable entity for the Guatemalan people with whom they work.
Healthcare: The Fundación Tradiciones Mayas (FTM) Community Health Program promotes preventative health and treatment of common illnesses through the use of medicinal plants and education with Maya families; simultaneously rescuing and preserving invaluable ancestral knowledge. The primary goals are to empower, educate, and train traditional healers, as well as emerging Maya youth in the use of medicinal plants. Through these cooperative and participatory efforts they will help restore and preserve the knowledge of traditional Mayan medicine that is in danger of becoming a lost cultural practice. Furthermore, the project aspires to restore faith in Mayan medicine, and provide access to affordable health care in rural indigenous communities surrounding Lake Atitlán.
Artisan Education: Part of Maya Traditions commitment to educating women is their collaboration with Oxlajuj B’atz’ (OB). OB’s objectives are to provide training for more than 300 weavers and artisans from 21 groups throughout various rural areas of Guatemala. This is accomplished by means of workshops, classes, campaigns and community follow-ups.
Their programs are concentrated in the following areas:
- Artisan Skills
- Democracy and Group Organization
- Health and Well-Being
- Small Business Skills
- Artisan Skills
Scholarship Program: Every mother dreams for her child to have a better life than her own. With most Maya weavers having no more than a third grade education; they felt it was crucial to establish a formal scholarship program to enable their children to go to school. Since 1997, when Maya Traditions pioneered this effort, they have given away over 1,300 scholarships, including stipends for tuition fees as well as for materials. Last year 135 students benefited from their scholarships, including 26 who receive monthly stipends for high school. Six students proudly graduated this year.
Youth Leadership Programs: Community service is a very important component of this program. Their emphasis is to work with the students to enable them to learn how to give back to their community. To reach this goal they hold two inspirational and practical Maya Traditions workshops every year covering topics such as cultural identity, Maya history, youth issues, and family disintegration. These workshops prepare high school students to teach spoken Spanish and to implement projects in their own villages to benefit members of the artisan groups and the community as a whole. They also ask that the students give two months of community service during school vacation.
To learn more about Maya Traditions, please visit their website, or Facebook page.
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