So we have been teaching the women different skills this past week through different workshops. The marketing team kicked it off with a workshop on branding and the importance of symbols and colours. The business team (my team) then did a workshop on the value of the women´s labour and how they should be pricing their products. Right now they do not take in to account the amount of time they work on a product, and therefore they price it at a very very low price, where they are not even making enough money to cover their expenses. The business team went through an exercise for the women to see what items they need to take in to account when they are pricing their products (such as large capital costs, material costs, their labour, etc.). I think the women really learnt a lot from this as one said that maybe they should stop weaving all together as they are actually losing money by doing so. We don´t want them to stop their craft, but we want them to see how much they need to charge in order to make any money by doing it. After going through the pricing sheet for the women to see how much they needed to charge for a huipil (the typical woven shirt that all the Mayan women wear and make) we did another exercise so that they women could see where they could cut costs and therefore lower the price. I think they really started to understand the whole process of pricing their products, which is an amazing start. The design team then did a workshop with them regarding the design process, which was great because after the business workshop the women were interested in creating new products rather than only the traditional Guatemalan products. Since then we have also given workshops on inventory, savings, and pattern making, and have also gone to the women´s store to see how we can help them redesign it to make it more tourist friendly. Yesterday the Mayan women taught us how to bead their traditional belts, dye yarn, and how to speak in their traditional language of Katchikel (I don´t know how to spell it, it is a VERY difficult language)! I´m excited for all the other workshops because they all seem to be having a very positive impact for all people involved. It´s been a very busy first week!
Reina and Sandra at their store. The items are displayed just by being hung on the walls so you can´t tell if the item is a shirt, napkin, scarf etc. There´s a lot to be done to the store, but so much potential so it´s very exciting!
One of the first workshops lead by the design team.
Trey and Aashrita beading.
Candace beading. It was really beautiful. The Mayan women typically bead floral decorations but they saw that there were other possibilities. The whole process takes several hours; we were working from about 10 am to 3 pm and finished several inches of the work.
Me and Estella, one of the daughters who comes with her mother to the workshops. All the kids are so intrigued by digital cameras and just want to take pictures with them.
