The Global Store is slow to catch on and we are looking for ways to increase its visibility and sales. The good news is that several of the groups we worked with over the years are making progress in starting their own businesses. One family used the lessons they learned from the women’s coop to open their own internet café. They have left the coop and now are earning enough money to take care of their family and create several jobs for others in their village. Several of the young women that grew up with the coop have found jobs in their community using the lessons they have learned. We are considering investing some of the funds in a solar lamp coop in Kenya that is providing lights to rural villages. The problem we are now facing is the violence in Mexico and other countries that is challenging our ability to provide hands on classes. A private school has developed a k -12 business curriculum for students. They have been very successful with wealthy students and they are proposing to form a partnership with FWOP to start a school for poor children. We hope to start this project in the next 12 months. One thing we are learning from this project is the impact goes way beyond just providing a market place for a few handicrafts. This project is helping individuals and communities to rethink how they can work together to insure a future without poverty.
A Future Without Poverty has recently received a shipment of items from a senior center in the mountains of Peru. We are currently reviewing these items for inclusion in our online store inventory. The items will be available beginning spring 2012. These items are all hand made by indigenous people. Many of the items use traditional methods that have been passed down from one generation to the next. The items use all natural materials and in many cases are unique one of a kind item. We are excited about brining these items to market and more importantly that the funds that will be providing income to help a senior day care center continue to serve the needs of seniors in this remote village. For more information go to http://www.futurewithoutpoverty.org/projects and read about the women that are making these items.
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We never know the impact that we have or where our project will lead us. The online web store is going to provide income to families that will be owning their own home for the first time in the families history. When we started working in Mexico in 1995 we began by organizing women's cooperatives that could provide jobs to their local communities. They told us they needed basic utilities, roads and housing. We worked with a small group of women in Flora De Campo in the state of Jalisco to bring electricity to 8 homes, build a bridge, improve the roads, bring in running water and repair the homes. We also built a chicken aqua culture farm and started a women’s sewing cooperative.
From this small beginning the word spread across Mexico and the women formed Women for A Future Without Poverty. Today this group has over 650,000 members and represents almost every community in Mexico. This group approached the Mexican government and private investors and is going to build 5,000 homes for low income families in Mexico. They are using what they learned from our humble beginnings to design and manage this project.
Each family must pay a mortgage on their new homes that is based on a % of their income. That is now where the online store comes in. Many families are looking for a way of selling hand crafted items that they make. We are now working on developing agreements with these future home owners to help them earn the money they need to own their own home. This approach will help these families to break the cycle of poverty that goes back for hundreds of years and create a future without poverty for their families.
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Help us to build an online store to support jobs to create a future without poverty for families around the world. This is a test page that is under construction and we need your comments on how to improve the store. We also need you to purchase some items to help us test the system. Every item is hand made and 90% of your purchase price is used to buy more items for the store. All purchases of items go directly to support local jobs and provide an opportunity to break the cycle of poverty. Please visit the store at:
To share your ideas about the store please go to
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The web site will be officially launched this spring.
We have purchased over $1,000 of items for the web site and are expecting deliveries to begin next month. These purchases have already made a difference to families in Mexico and Peru.
The following is the introduction to a first hand report from a family in in southern México in the state of Oaxaca and in the Zapotec pueblo of Teotitlán del Valle, a small town about 20 miles from the state capital of Oaxaca de Juárez.
“Hola! My name is Teresa. I wanted you to know that I and my family made your new purse. We certainly hope you like it, and will continue to enjoy it for many years to come.It is likely that one of the reasons you chose this bag was because you enjoy knowing more about the people who make the things you buy and how they are made. This flyer will tell you a bit about me and my family, about where we live, and how we made your purse using all natural dyes and wool produced locally. We are proud of our work and would like to thank you personally for your support and interest in us.” Read the attached story.
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