Women & Nature
need your support
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Help Women &
Nature is Viva Sierra Gorda´s donation program to build stronger
cooperatives and protect the environment they depend upon. By increasing the
skills needed, the self esteem and the entrepreneurial capacity of each
woman, the donation has a positive impact on the household and community and
encourages best practices from campesino to campesino, woman to woman.
Buy from and
visit the Network of Micro-Enterprise by Women & Nature in the Sierra Gorda
Biosphere Reserve, Mexico. Help build a healthy economy that benefits rural
livelihoods and Nature. |
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In Winter
2011-2012, Mexican President Felipe Calderon distinguished
one of Sierra Gorda´s women-owned and operated cooperatives
with a national prize during the annual fair of the National
Program to Support Solidarity Enterprises (FONAES in Spanish).
One of the younger members received the award in name of the
30 women in the cooperative; she travelled for the first
time from La Colgada in Pinal de Amoles County to Merida,
Yucatan to proudly represent the outstanding performance of
their rural enterprise, Embroidery with Nature Motifs. |
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Why to Buy Rural Products:
The 638
rural communities in Sierra Gorda have no job opportunities, minimal
education , a dependency on remittances, and own 97% of the land in the most
ecosystem-diverse Biosphere Reserve in Mexico. 35% of the population seeks
work in the USA and big cities in Mexico to generate secure income for
growing families back in the Sierra Gorda. Subsequently, the migrant
workers are primarily men and it is the community women who sustain the
local economy while caring for their children and elderly in extreme poverty
conditions in the rural mountains. But families are receiving less from the
outside and rural poverty is more dependent on the resources available next
door in the forests and the semi-desert which means there is a growing
threat on wildlife, biodiversity, soils and ecosystem health.
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 Pure
Life Foods (Alimentos Pura Vida) is a dedicated group of women
living in one of 638 communities in the Sierra Gorda Biosphere
Reserve. Whereas local produce in this tropical ecosystem have
little access to market and often rot in the fields, the community
women are converting the foodstuff to make quality products with
exquisite tastes and natural health in mind.
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Organic Bees (Abejas Orgánicas) is a regional initiative to recover
the beekeeping (apiculture) tradition and improve the skills,
management and infrastructure that benefit organic life cycles and
agricultural production in the region. |
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 Embroidery Inspired by
Nature (Bordados con Motivos de la Naturaleza), was founded and
continues to employ 31 women in an extremely poor community. This
successful cooperative was founded 6 years ago and has won national
awards and international distribution for their high quality,
original designs and effective management of a rural microenterprise.
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This
ceramic workshop began as a collaboration of three generations of
women in Soledad de Guadalupe, producing traditional pots and
selling during the Sunday market. As a cooperative, the partners
have improved the equipment, diversified products and today their
original designs are sold in Jalpan de Serra and Querétaro City.
They accept special orders for hand crafted products.
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Vale´s Remedies (Remedios Valen) is a family-run business in a small
corner of a community in the Sierra Gorda. Doña Vale produces a
wide range of natural remedies ranging from drops, pomades, shampoos
and ointments to treat health and beauty needs with natural herbs
and traditional knowledge.
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Viva Sierra Gorda is a project of
 Earth Island Institute.
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