Mayan Hands

Mayan Hands

Mayan Hands, a fair trade enterprise founded in 1989, works with fifteen different groups (about 225 women) who live in small villages in the highlands of Guatemala and market their products through fair trade. These weavers now count on a modest but regular income that enables them to raise themselves from relentless poverty. They eat better, send their children to school, improve their situation and keep hope alive.

Mayan Hands strives to improve the lives of talented weavers who use backstrap looms. The backstrap loom is an intricate and painstaking art form, whereby even experts weave only one inch of brocaded cloth per hour of work.

The women in Nahuala make stoles for pastors to wear with their robes. Each woman in the Nahuala group is getting either a new roof or a new stove. Those getting a new roof are replacing a tile roof with tin. Those getting a new stove will no longer cook on an open pit fire. Global Village in Illinois is providing the funding for this project.
Woman who received the roof	Woman ready to light her new stove
In 2004 women of the Vasconsles group had new cement floors put in their homes. This project is also being funded by the group in Illinois.
Completed room	Completed house
Sharing the Dream provides school supplies for the children of the women in several of the groups. Thirteen women of the Morales group had cement floors put in their homes with funds from Sharing the Dream and some donations. Sharing the Dream also purchased ten looms for the Santiago group and loom parts, embroidery hoops, and a digital camera for the women in other groups.