Mayan Hands

Mayan Hands has been working with about 400 artisans in eighteen different artisan groups in Guatemala and Chiapas, Mexico since 1989. They provide artisans with quality raw materials, and assist them in developing products and colors which fit the international market.

Most artisans working in Guatemala and Chiapas live under conditions of extreme poverty. Mayan Hands is seeking to improve the lives of these talented artisans. Through fair trade, they can count on a modest but regular income that enables them to raise themselves from relentless poverty. People eat better, send their children to school, improve their homes and even save a little.

Furthermore, fair trade strengthens Maya traditional culture: receiving an adequate income by weaving on the backstrap loom (a technique inherited from their ancestors more than 2500 years ago), and using traditional designs, emphasizes the viability of Maya culture and identity. Maya peoples have survived 500 years of oppression and attacks on their cultures. Fair Trade is enabling them to resist the onslaught of reckless industrialization brought on by the global economy.

Global Exchange markets colorful backstrap loomed placemats "Children of the World" coin purses from Mayan Hands.

Maya Traditions

Maya Traditions is Global Exchange's primary trading partner in Guatemalan crafts. They have been working with women's weaving cooperatives and family businesses since 1988. Currently they focus on four groups of women weavers, totaling approximately 100 women, from the highlands of Guatemala. The focus is on providing consistent year-round work and improving the quality of life for these women who experience great difficulty in meeting daily needs for their families. While preserving the integrity of the traditional backstrap weaving, Maya Traditions works with the women to refine quality and to create products to reach a wider market in the US.

In addition to consistent work, Maya Traditions, in partnership with Global Exchange, has developed several projects with the women, which have done much to improve their quality of life. The projects include health care for the women, including medicinal herbs, and education for their children. To read more about the groups and projects visit Maya Traditions' website.

Thirty women backstrap weavers from Solola produce woven bags, scarves, backpacks, and pouches. Twenty-eight women from Nahuala produce colorful, high-quality backstrap woven organizers and passport bags as well as textiles for wall hangings and pillows. The San Juan La Laguna group produces beautiful woven ikat scarves, bags, shawls, pouches, vests and bedspreads. A group of women in Chichicastenango produce colorful woven bags and belts. One elderly man from Aguacatan weaves shoulder bags. Four groups work together to create indigenous dolls, baby hammocks, shirts, and hackey sacks.

Wajxaq'lb Kan

The 30 women weavers from Solola have named themselves after a sacred day in the Mayan calendar: Wajxaq'lb Kan. Their Mayan ancestors would be proud to see the fine designs and colors that hold together the bags,pouches and scarves they weave. Many of these women were widowed during the violence of the early 1980's, leaving them sole providers for their families. In 1987, they came together to improve their desperate economic situation. Today their work is financing drinkable water, adequate housing, basic nutrition and medical care for their community.

UPAVIM/Unidos Para Vivir Mejor

"United to Live Better" expresses the activities of a group of women in the poverty-stricken barrio of La Esperanza (in Guatemala City) when they organized themselves into a community organization. UPAVIM oversees the development and operation of health and education programs which benefit the people of La Esperanza, including: a Medical Clinic; a Dental Clinic staffed with a dentist as well as women from the community trained as dental assistants; a Medical Laboratory, a Well-Baby program; a Breast Feeding program directed by the La Leche league of Guatemala, a Day Care Center with Montessori trained teachers, and a children's scholarship and tutoring program that sends more than 500 children to public school and provides the tutoring support to keep them there.

Key to the UPAVIM programs is the production and sale of the crafts and clothing marketed through fair trade groups like Global Exchange. Sale of these items provide direct income for the women as well as crucial financial support for the various programs.

UPAVIM
Calle Principal, Sector D-1
La Esperanza, Zona 1
Guatemala, 01012 Guatemala
502/479.9061
upavim@ns.guate.net