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UPAVIM
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| Elsa Hernandez, Seamstress | UPAVIM, or United for a Better Life (Unidos Para Una Vida Mejor), is a group of 78 women who live in marginalized communities on the outskirts of Guatemala City. They are all mothers and homemakers; many are the sole breadwinners in their families; some are widows or abandoned by their husbands. In spite of a variety of social problems in the area(gang violence, illiteracy, drug abuse, unemployment, malnutrition, alcoholism), the community is called La Esperanza(hope) and the women of UPAVIM have kept their hope alive. In 1989, with the help of American nurse Barbara Lorraine, a group of 10 women decided to start selling handcrafts to support a pre-natal education program for young mothers. Today UPAVIM exports fair trade crafts around the world and the proceeds help fund low cost day care, a primary school with Montessori trained teachers, a medical clinic, a laboratory and pre- and post-natal services. To the women of UPAVIM, fair trade means fair wages, work with dignity, and community development!
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| Since working [with a fair-trade cooperative], I have been treated with love and respect by city people for the first time, instead of being looked down upon. - Li Lang Fen, Threads of Yunnan, China. |
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