Fair Trade in San Jose de Cusmapa
High atop one of the mountains that separates Nicaragua and Honduras lays the small town of San Jose de Cusmapa, deemed the poorest community in all of Nicaragua. Most workers earn their money through subsistence farming and bring in the equivalent of $1 a day to feed, house, and clothe their families. Despite this desperate reality the community has a reason to hope, as forty-five women are transforming their situation and benefiting from the power of Fair Trade.
Since 2002 these women have been organized in a cooperative that makes baskets out of pine needles, a raw material that is abundant in the mountainous region. With the help of Esperanza en Acción and other organizations they are selling their baskets at a fair price and have dramatically increased their income for their families. Their production has even generated a micro-economy for collecting pine needles which provides opportunities for others not involved in the making of the baskets to earn more money as well.
As a result of the increase in family income, children are now eating where otherwise they might have been hungry. In addition to improved nutrition, families can send their children back to school and many children now have socks for the first time, a necessity on the cold mountain. There are even families who after making baskets for three months have been able to purchase beds and furniture where once they had nothing.
The changes that the town of San Jose de Cusmapa has experienced are representative of the changes seen in other communities with the introduction of fair trade industries.The money earned through receiving a fair wage contributes to the direct improvement of the lives of the artisans and their families.
The social benefits of fair trade are equally transformative. The economic revolution led in San Jose de Cusmapa has been led by women, almost unheard of in the male-dominated Nicaraguan society. Most women spend their lives cooking, cleaning and taking care of children in their households. The members of the basket making cooperative are in a unique situation as they are contributing monetarily to the well-being of their households. They are perceived as professionals in the community and have developed a confidence through a newfound pride and dignity for their work. This same social transformation is observed with the other women artisans that Esperanza en Acción works with throughout Nicaragua.
Fair Trade offers the opportunity for a new life. It is transforming the communities and lives of Nicaraguan artisans as they are finally earning a fair wage for their work and they are using that power to pull themselves out of poverty.
High atop one of the mountains that separates Nicaragua and Honduras lays the small town of San Jose de Cusmapa, deemed the poorest community in all of Nicaragua. Most workers earn their money through subsistence farming and bring in the equivalent of $1 a day to feed, house, and clothe their families. Despite this desperate reality the community has a reason to hope, as forty-five women are transforming their situation and benefiting from the power of Fair Trade.
Since 2002 these women have been organized in a cooperative that makes baskets out of pine needles, a raw material that is abundant in the mountainous region. With the help of Esperanza en Acción and other organizations they are selling their baskets at a fair price and have dramatically increased their income for their families. Their production has even generated a micro-economy for collecting pine needles which provides opportunities for others not involved in the making of the baskets to earn more money as well.
As a result of the increase in family income, children are now eating where otherwise they might have been hungry. In addition to improved nutrition, families can send their children back to school and many children now have socks for the first time, a necessity on the cold mountain. There are even families who after making baskets for three months have been able to purchase beds and furniture where once they had nothing.
The changes that the town of San Jose de Cusmapa has experienced are representative of the changes seen in other communities with the introduction of fair trade industries.The money earned through receiving a fair wage contributes to the direct improvement of the lives of the artisans and their families.
The social benefits of fair trade are equally transformative. The economic revolution led in San Jose de Cusmapa has been led by women, almost unheard of in the male-dominated Nicaraguan society. Most women spend their lives cooking, cleaning and taking care of children in their households. The members of the basket making cooperative are in a unique situation as they are contributing monetarily to the well-being of their households. They are perceived as professionals in the community and have developed a confidence through a newfound pride and dignity for their work. This same social transformation is observed with the other women artisans that Esperanza en Acción works with throughout Nicaragua.
Fair Trade offers the opportunity for a new life. It is transforming the communities and lives of Nicaraguan artisans as they are finally earning a fair wage for their work and they are using that power to pull themselves out of poverty.
