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

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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

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Yabal Needs Your Help!

Yabal just launched our 2017 crowdfunding campaign on the website Indiegogo and we need your help in spreading the word! Please take a moment to visit the campaign here and make a small donation, share with your friends and family, and post on your facebook page. Currently, around 60 indigenous women artisans depend on Yabal’s Fair Trade weaving

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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

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Meet Paulina

An interview by Yabal volunteer, Kellie Shepherd Moeller, and Paulina Guachiac Guachiac (one of the leaders of the weaving cooperative from the community of Chuicutama). There are four young women leaders of the Pacutama/Chuicutama fair trade weaving cooperative of Yabal. They distribute the weaving orders between the rest of the 35 women, calculate prices and thread

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Meet Santa

To share with our customers more about the amazing women artisans behind our Yabal Fair Trade accessories line, today, we want to introduce you to Santa, the president of the weaving cooperative of Pacutama in the region of Santa Catarina in the western highlands of Guatemala. Below is the english translation of the interview between Yabal volunteer,

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Women’s Small Business Training Program

Each month, as part of our on-going entrepreneurship program, Y’abal offers job skills trainings for our group of 35 women weavers in the communities of Pacutama and Chuicutama, in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan. The idea is to teach them new skills and give them new ideas for generating income out of small home businesses. The communities

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New Product Design Process

Creating a new product for Y’abal is always an organic and surprising process. It requires flexibility and openness on both ends- from the designer, as well as, from the women’s cooperative. We begin with an idea or a drawing which we take to the women weavers of the communities of Pacutama and Chuicutama, in the rural

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