Maya Traditions Journal > What Makes Maya Traditions Special: An Interview With Our Staff

If you’ve had the opportunity to visit Guatemala and meet Maya Traditions’ artisans, staff, and volunteers in person, you know that you have found a remarkable place. This month, we asked our incredible staff what makes our work at Maya Traditions special. Here is what they had to say:

‘Maya Traditions has strong, long-lasting relationships with artisans and works to support them as whole women not just artisans.’ 

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‘We convert the needs of our artisans into opportunities, offering them the training and tools necessary so that they themselves can change thier own situations. For me, that’s true empowerment.’  
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‘We are a foundation that promotes the work of indigenous artisan women, helping them better understand their worth and the worth of their art.’
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‘Maya Traditions is a true social enterprise in that we are building a business that through its growth, will help us to better reach our mission of providing fair wages to skilled artisans and celebrating the art of backstrap weaving.’ 
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‘We work to connect talented artisans to a Fair Trade market so that they can improve the quality of life for themselves and their families. Through social programs in education and health, we further our impact.’
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‘For me, what makes Maya Traditions special is its respect and reverence for the traditional Maya culture.  This organization wasn’t founded to ‘fix’ problems within the community, rather we seek to advance and support the most positive aspects of the culture while focusing on helping women, mostly mothers, to earn a fair wage and support their families.  The women and children we serve also serve us, and the mutual respect that is created is something that I have not seen in other charities.’
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Member of the
World Fair Trade Organization