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/.