Pathways to autonomy: tzotzil women's empowerment

During these months we have accompanied the women artisans in their business training processes and have been able to observe the levels of empowerment and self-management that they have achieved in their social enterprises.

At the technical level, the artisans have developed and strengthened their design skills, to mention a few examples; they are organized to make samples, calculate their production costs, make collective purchases of raw materials and have clear quality requirements throughout the production process.

The organizational structures of each artisan women's social enterprise have been strengthened and they have internal agreements that have allowed them to work collectively, as well as to follow up and make decisions in a democratic manner.

Spaces for meeting and learning have been created in which more experienced artisans share their knowledge with young artisans within their enterprises and with other enterprises, which has contributed to strengthening social cohesion and organization at the regional level.

Finally, the generation of income as a key element in economic development initiatives has been of great importance, as part of our work as an advisory and accompanying organization we have linked the social enterprises of women artisans with customers in the fair trade segment who recognize and value artisan work, this has helped to motivate women to remain organized.

The methodology of accompaniment combines theory with practice and it is in the production where the knowledge acquired by the artisans during the workshops is materialized. The collections that have been made can be purchased in the online store of the Binational Network www.matat.org and in the platforms of our strategic allies such as https://ensambleartesano.org/.

In the last three months the artisans have continued with their training processes, the Binational Network of Women Artisans renewed its collaboration agreement with the Institute for Training and Technological Linkage of the state of Chiapas and a course on basic dressmaking was given at the Artisan Development Center.

Technical training has been very important during this period, as it has strengthened the skills and capacities of the women artisans, who are incorporating this learning into their production, while diversifying their product offerings in the market.

In May, we handed out certificates to the artisans who completed the dressmaking course, which certifies the knowledge they have acquired. These certificates are important for the craftswomen, who have an official document that endorses the skills and abilities they acquired and will allow them to enter the labor market under better conditions if they consider it necessary.

"The dressmaking course was very important because I was able to put into practice what I have learned in previous courses, I feel more confident to use the sewing machine and I think that learning to make new products helps us to offer more products to our customers" testimony of a craftswoman.

In terms of income generation, the artisans participated in the production of collections for the second edition of Ensamble Artesano, an initiative focused on strengthening the Mexican artisan sector, the collections developed are available at: https://www.ensambleartesano.org/productos?filt=0&ordenar=NOAZ&m=18 in addition to the Binational Network's own collections, which are marketed at www.matat.org and in various fair trade spaces nationally and internationally.

"I am very happy with everything we have learned during this period, because we are making progress as Social Enterprises of Women Artisans, we are becoming better organized, we learn from the workshops of the Binational Network and we put it into practice in our productions, now we produce with very good quality and the prices of our products have a better price", testimony of a craftswoman.