Mujeres Sembrando la Vida (MSV): Our artisans can gather together with your help!

MSV artisans need to meet in person and you could help it happen!

We are happy to announce our new online fundraising relationship with DonorSee.  You can find our first funding petition here. 

In the video on DonorSee, Magdalena talks about the importance of being able to gather the 60+ women in the cooperative for an all-day in-person assembly. 

My mother Magdalena founded Mujeres Sembrando la Vida (MSV) over 20 years ago. A local NGO took her under their wing and helped her establish MSV. When my sister Yoli and I graduated from the university she passed the responsibility for the MSV cooperative to us. She continues to be active in the cooperative and has volunteered to request funding for the gathering of artisans. 

Most of the artisans are women and the income they earn from their hand-loomed and embroidered products.  This means the men are not forced to migrate somewhere else to support their families. It also means children are able to stay in school longer than their parents did. 

We need the funding to cover public transportation costs for over 60 artisans from 7 outlying villages to meet at the MSV headquarters in Zinacantán, Chiapas. 

The in-person meetings are a forum to share common concerns, exchange ideas and collectively decide on coordinated actions that the artisans can implement in their villages. Most of the artisans can’t read or write and often they barely speak Spanish.  This requires all capacity building must be done in person.

Training for textile production can be individual, which my sister Yoli does by traveling to the communities to meet with the small groups in each community.  Being able to help natural leaders to become more effective change-makers in their villages needs the power of being able to occasionally gather in person!.

Any and all contributions toward helping these artisans meet in person is a strategic investment that will reap exponential impact.