Pathways to autonomy: tzotzil women's empowerment

In the last quarter, significant progress has been made both in the training of artisans and in the development of new collections for promotion and market linkage.

1. Training of the artisans:

The artisans have continued with their training processes, which have been fundamental to improve the quality of their products. Through the workshops, the participants have improved their skills and therefore their production processes. This has enabled the products they make not only to maintain their artisanal identity, but also to meet the quality standards required by the markets.

The artisans have developed design skills, which has led to the development of new products that have been promoted to different clients. They have received training in aspects related to marketing and fiscal aspects for issuing invoices.

2. Development of New Collections:

Thanks to the knowledge acquired during the training process, the artisans have been able to develop new collections that reflect their creativity and territorial identity. These collections incorporate quality raw materials and have been designed in a participatory manner, recognizing the craftswomen's ancestral knowledge.

We are in a process of specialization of the artisans according to the capacities installed in each one of them, this has allowed one of the Social Enterprises of Artisan Women in the last quarter to learn to make shirts to serve a market segments.

3. Management of Organizational and Productive Processes:

The management team of each of the Women Artisans' Social Enterprises has taken responsibility for organizing and directing the organizational and productive processes of their enterprises effectively.

In a participatory manner, the artisans have built more efficient systems to coordinate their internal processes, which has allowed for a more efficient response to clients and their product needs. The management team is responsible for ensuring that each stage of the production process is carried out according to total quality standards.

The collections that have been developed are available at www.matat.org.