Mothers helping Mothers- A Reflection on our Team
A reflection on how being mothers adds to our already special and skilled team at Yabal. Thanks for reading!
Continue reading »Tag Archives: "social enterprise"
Celebrating Women in the Month of March
Our women’s day celebration: On March 8th, 2023, in Quetzaltenango, Yabal and Mayamam administrators and coordinators held a commemorative event, bringing together administrative teams, all the women artisans, coordinators, and community leaders from both organizations.
Continue reading »What does it mean to be a Fair Trade company?
Yabal is a proud member of the World Fair Trade Organization and Fair Trade Federation, which means that our business is transparent, audited and certified as a social enterprise that places people and planet before profit. As such, we want to take this opportunity to tell you more about Fair Trade and what it means
Continue reading »Yabal’s 2020 Scholarships!
Yabal has awarded scholarships to eight youth, children of our women weavers to use towards middle school and high school for 2020. Our youth are excited for this opportunity to continue their studies and look forward to achieving their dreams. Feliciana, above, is 13 years old and has just started 7th grade. She walks daily
Continue reading »A day off
As women we never have a break, we are always working. Whereas the men go to work and then come home to relax, women are working from sunrise to sunset. Washing, cooking, collecting firewood, taking care of the children, taking care of the garden, the chickens, preparing the food for tomorrow. And in between those
Continue reading »Micro-credits for/by the community
Yabal started a small loan program with the community of Chuicutama 7 years ago. After receiving a private donation, we asked the community what project they would like to use the money for. The community decided to use these funds to create a micro-credit system for their families to rent land for corn cultivation. As these families
Continue reading »Yabal featured in Handwoven Magazine!
Excerpt from an article in Handwoven and Interweave magazines featuring Yabal Handicrafts: Weaving New Lives and Bringing New Hope February 23, 2017 | Author: Anita Osterhaug Mayan women say that the goddess Ixchel taught their people to weave at the dawn of time. Through millennia of struggle between rival groups, through the founding of a dynasty
Continue reading »Quality over Quantity
«Quality over quantity» is our unspoken slogan at Yabal. We have been working with a group of around 50 artisans for around 8 years now. Each year we have been able to include a few new women into our Fair Trade weaving project but only when we are able to commit to provide enough work
Continue reading »Seeing is Believing
by Max Crosby, Yabal Volunteer I did a good deal of thinking about my recent visit to the Yabal weaving cooperative in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan with Yabal’s Production Coordinator, Yesica. The second part of the visit is what really had an impact on me. Once the piñata-making workshop was over, part of Yabal’s Women’s
Continue reading »Reflections on Fair Trade
As October is Fair Trade month, I wanted to take a moment and reflect on what Fair Trade means for me and specifically for all of us at Yabal. I think for people that only look at Fair Trade through a business, money-bottom-line lens, it might not be the «smartest» business move. Normally in business
Continue reading »