The following excerpt is from the inaugural issue of EVFP: The Human Development Magazine. To learn how to order this magazine, and to view a preview of its entire first issue, please click here.
The Women of Lake Atitlan (by Marcelle Renkin and Dana Kulchawik)
Many of the traditions that define and sustain the Mayan culture remain today but not without the effort of local and international organizations and individuals who strive to protect traditional knowledge and local resources through its practical application…
Jane Mintz, an experienced social worker and weaver herself, began working with indigenous women artisans and families in 1988. This collaboration was the beginning of Maya Traditions, an American-based Fair Trade wholesale business and Guatemalan-based production and social service organization.
A WEAVING GROUP BORN OF TRADEGY
Antonia is the founder of her weaving group which formed in response to a massacre in her mountain village in the highlands of Guatemala in the early 1980’s. Antonia works to help her group gain markets for their weavings, aiding in the economic vitality of her community. Antonia’s group began working with Maya Traditions in the development of new samples. This Fair Trade relationship thrived and now supports the 22 members of this weaving group. In collaboration with the Maya Traditions, her group received and paid back a loan for communal land where group member’s plant and harvest corn to sell when yearly weaving supplies dwindle. These funds serve as capital for the group’s weaving projects.
A CENTER BUILT FROM WEAVING
… One of [the group’s] successful initiatives resulted in the building of a community center in 2002 for their group on their communal land.
The weavers and their families provided labor needed to build the community center while Maya Traditions and the Canadian Government’s fund for Local Initiatives paid for the materials…
To learn more about EVFP magazine, please click here. To read more articles about women in Guatemala, please click here.
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