Mujeres Sin Limites

On Friday we spent the day in Montero (a little town an hour north of Santa Cruz) with the group of women “Mujeres Sin Limites” (women without limits). This is a group that MCC (Mennonite Central Committee, the Non-Governmental Organization that we’re working with) has worked with for the past three years. The group makes beautiful bags and accessories out of “aguayo” (a type of cloth made (and mostly used) by indigenous folks in the highlands). There we work along with a kid’s soup kitchen. After working to feed children for about 5 years, the project decided they wanted to create some sort of long term change, so they began providing classes for the mothers of the children. This was the first group that graduated. MCC (David and Danitza, our former cowokers) worked at challenging the women with the hard task of pricing (measuring fabric, calculating rent, wear and tear on machines etc), as well as other dynamics of setting up the business (ie. Should people be paid for the hours they work, or by the piece of each thing they make?)
This group is an incredible mix of women. They have had many struggles in the last year, and they continue with many questions of how to survive in a very competitive economy, but overall their willingness to stick together as a group is impressive. On Friday we worked on creating a label for their products (we’re working on marketing right now, searching for ways to help their work stick out in a flood of similar (less quality and less expensive) goods. Here are some pictures (did I mention they are excellent sales ladies?)