Pathways to autonomy: tzotzil women's empowerment

During the last 3 months the artisans have continued with their training processes, we have focused on technical training with the objective that the artisans develop skills and abilities that allow them to strengthen their craft activity, on the other hand, it is important the specialization of the Social Enterprises of Women Artisans to orient their productions to a market segment.

The artisans of the Social Enterprise “Las Rosas” conducted a participatory analysis and concluded that their productions have been focused mainly on women and that the men's sector as a market segment has been neglected; therefore, they generated ideas of products that can be integrated into their offer to diversify it.

The need to learn how to make shirts was identified, so a cutting and sewing course was offered at the Centro de Desarrollo Artesanal, where the craftswomen have learned how to: lay out and cut the fabric, work with patterns or molds, and have perfected the finishing of their products. In the first stage of the course they made men's shirts with mao and casual collars.

“Now we are learning to make men's shirts, it is more difficult but we are happy because we are learning something new and we hope that our products will be liked so we can sell them and have our own resources”, said one artisan.

On the other hand, the Binational Network cooperative has strengthened its market access strategy so that the ESMAS artisans can link up and consolidate their commercial alliances that allow them to generate income and contribute to their economic empowerment. It is possible to purchase the products of the craftswomen in the online store www.matat.org.

“Before I didn't know how to use a sewing machine, I was afraid of hurting myself, but with the course I have learned to feel more confident and I am very happy to see the results, we are making progress as a social enterprise and we are happy about that”, said one of the artisans.