Our project works with rural indigenous women in the South of Chile, in a town called Cunco Chico. The women's families are categorized as financially destitute. The Chol-Chol Foundation, an World Fair Trade Organization member, will work with 12 women to help them develop their traditional handcraft skills, self-esteem and economic resources.
Cunco Chico is located in the poorest region of Chile, many families here live below the minimum wage and struggle to feed their children outside of school time. Most families from this community also have indigenous Mapuche heritage and have suffered cultural oppression for decades. The 12 women have little financial sovereignty during the many difficult challenges to their quality of life. Our workshops offer a road to economic opportunity, cultural preservation and female empowerment.
Micro financing materials and training to develop textile skills will help create a process in which the women can sell their products, generating income and financial independence. Alongside this, empowerment workshops will offer the women a chance to express themselves and build self-confidence. Together they will become a unified, sustainable cooperative, able to create and commercialise their products by themselves, empowered financially and socially.
The program will allow women to help their families to have a greater income, with the hope that children will not have to be taken out of school, thus breaking the cycle of poverty and lack of education in these communities.
