Build Women’s Fair Trade Businesses, Hidalgo

Your support goes a long way to helping women artisans of this project.

We thought you might be interested to hear more about the women of this project and how far they have come over the years:

Over ten years ago, The Body Shop met the women from Valle de Mezquital, where this project is located, who were part of Nepi Behna, the partner overseeing this project. They saw all the products the women could create out of agave fibers, a natural resource that was locally cultivated.

The indigenous women were using agave fibers for everything: clothes, curtains, for carrying babies, decoration, etc.The Body Shop saw great potential in the women’s cooperative and in this environmental-friendly material to create bath sponges. Today, these sponges are sold in 2,000 of their stores around the world.

Since forming the cooperative, the women members have created innovative ways to ensure that they make the most out of their cooperative – like starting saving groups where women can save the income being generated through their work.

With your support, the women have been able to diversify their portfolio and are pioneering a women-led movement to promote a fair trade market not only abroad but domestically within Mexico.

With support from Ñepi Behña , they have connected with women artisans from all over Mexico – Puebla, Mexico City, Oaxaca and Chiapas – to sell their environmental-friendly and fair trade products.

Your support of this project has helped so much create a marketplace for women artisans and their independent and cooperative work! Thank you!

Thanks to your continued support Ñepi Behña is promoting women’s development through community projects that are sustainable and that address the issue of gender in indigenous communities. They are offering capacity-building tools and seeking economic development alternatives in order to empower indigenous rural women and their families. 

Ñephi Behña is able to provide more workshops and trainings to promote leadership development and autonomy in communities of Hidalgo, Mexico. 

Women have been able to organize themselves as promoters and leaders, where now the communities of Hidalgo are starting to recognize their important role as women and their contributions to society.

Ñepi Behña has enjoyed great accomplishments this year, such as diversifying their production made with natural resources that is helping to create new products to be sold in the local markets.  Additionally, eco-technologies were implemented through the construction of integrated backyard gardens using agroecological practices and chicken-raising skills.  Because of this, women have built awareness and analytical skills to address the food crisis. 

By lending your support, you are not only changing the life of one woman, but you are a direct part of the change in her community and her world! 

Your generosity towards this project is important to the women of Valle de Mezquital! Migration affects this community- while men leave to do construction or labor in the US and other developed countries, women often remain to take care of the home, children, and work for supplementary income. The sustainable resources that Nepi Behña builds its fair trade cosmetics line are grown and cultivated by women, and the products are made by these women as well. As migration patterns change, these women are finding themselves the sole earner as their husbands and family members return home. Having an income increases women’s status and when their families are reunited, they have much more respect at home. Thank you for your generosity and your direct contribution to empowering women in Hildago, Mexico!