Me llamo "Tany"

Small-scale microenterprise projects have emerged as one of the most promising development models in recent decades. Research has shown that microenterprises have contributed to livelihood enhancement in thousands of poor communities around the world. However, success stories take time. I’m only going to be in Santiago for two months, so I was really excited to get going on our project as soon as I arrived!

Dolores translating from Spanish to Tz’utijil in Monday's meeting

We spent the first five days that I was here in Santiago trying to figure out logistics about fabric and finances. Anyone who has studied development or worked on a project knows that every project comes with its fair share of unexpected hurdles and challenges! Buying fabric seems like an easy task at first, but actually there are a lot of questions to be answered. Should the women weave the base fabric by hand, or should we purchase local fabric to work with? What styles and colors of fabric are available for purchase in Santiago, and where can we find fabric that is high quality, affordable, and in the colors that we desire? How much fabric does each women need for each product? What is a fair living wage for the labor needed to complete each piece? These questions were some of the things that we thought of after we had already decided which products were making, which colors and designs we wanted, and how we were allocating funding to make the products.

An added challenge is that the majority of the women speak the indigenous Tz’utijil language and only limited Spanish, so I can’t speak with them without a translator. I wouldn’t be able to do anything without Dolores, the Natik’s General Manager in Guatemala, who is fluent in both Spanish and Tz’utijil! Since my name is challenging for many of the women to say, I have started introducing myself as "Tany" to most of the people that I meet in Santiago.

After finally working through all the kinks, we set out to purchase fabric from a local shop for the base materials for our products. We decided to give each woman the option of embroidering either a set of four placemats or a bag with an embroidered flap. Each woman has the option to decide on her fabric color and product based on personal preference as well as the yarn that she already has at home, which she will be using for the embroidery. We decided on a deadline for the projects at two weeks.

Candelaria cutting the fabric

Picking out fabric colors with Anna

This morning the women came over to the meeting place at Dona Chonita’s (my neighbor here in Santiago), and we explained the products and design styles that we had decided for the first round of projects. At the end of the meeting, we distributed the fabric! 19 women came for the meeting. I can’t wait to see what the women come up with for the finished products in a couple of weeks!

My first fabric purchase