From Poverty to Prosperity, One Stitch at a Time
It’s four in the morning and the day has already started for Luz Adriana. The sun is still waiting to peek out and say hello but Luz Adriana, who is 33 years old, is already hard at work. She is the mother of three who works hard to provide for her family.
Luz Adriana, who is 33 years old, is already hard at work.
She is the mother of three who works hard to provide for her family.
At dawn she prepares food for her young ones before sending them off to school, and bids farewell to her partner who takes off to work. Luz Adriana lives on a farm so that means there are animals to be fed and chores to take care of. This is part of her morning routine as well. All this happens before she heads off to work. The early bird gets the worm is what they say, and Luz Adriana is quite the early bird. She has to be!
Jambaló, a municipality in Cauca, Colombia, is an indigenous reservation of the Nasa Community. It is this tight knit community that Luz Adriana was born in and that she still belongs to.
“Nasa is a united, hard-working community that watches over the learning of the little ones so that they develop a love and appreciation for the effort it takes to work, without expecting any help from the outside.”
Although Luz Adriana has such fond thoughts of her community, recalling her childhood is not such a joyful point of conversation for her. She did not have an easy start in life. Luz Adriana never met her father and her mother left her in the care of her grandparents at the tender age of three. These formative years, where some kids receive so much love from their parents, were some that marked Luz Adriana’s life forever. Her voice cracks and you can see her spirits fall when she looks back on those days and relives her feelings of abandonment and that void that was left by the absence of both her parents.
Even at thirteen years old, Luz Adriana had nothing but a positive attitude. Her entire life she has maintained this drive, this energy, this desire to better herself. That’s what has helped Luz Adriana make her way in the community. Her passion, integrity, and love of learning have allowed her to take a bad situation and turn it into something wonderful: her own business that she loves.
Weaving! Luz Adriana has found that she loves to weave and she is wicked good at it! Sometimes, life will allow opportunity to come knocking on your door. One day, Enredarte knocked on Luz Adriana’s door.
Enredarte con Identidad is a social enterprise network made up of indigenous women artisans from northern Cuaca, Colombia who come together to make handicrafts and sell them in the local market. This project, which came to life in 2010, aims to empower women, providing them tools to improve productivity and have access to markets and unveil the facts around poverty.
Before Enredarte became such a central part of Luz Adriana’s life, she had no income. She worked on her farm and could not contribute financially to the household expenses. Now, with the income she receives, Luz Adriana can pay a worker to take care of her farm while she weaves and runs her own business. Thanks to her work, she has managed to buy school supplies for her children, and she even managed to save up to go on a trip with her family, something she couldn't do before.
The benefits have not been only for Luz Adriana; she considers that they have been for her entire family. Her husband accompanies her to business training sessions that have helped them learn how to better manage their store and plan for a better future.
If you ask Luz Adriana about her work, she’ll tell you:
“I am so grateful to have my business and to be able to weave. I love weaving. It brings new meaning to my life and I feel enormous gratitude for all the opportunities I have been given.”
Luz Adriana loves her community and has nothing but wonderful things to say about how community members provide support for children and how they supported her after both her parents were gone. Nevertheless, despite this sliver of silver lining in her childhood, at 13 years of age and just after she finished primary school, she had to make a change. The need to survive and to provide for herself took her away from her small community and into the city in search of employment. When she arrived in the city, she learned basic things like taking care of a home and learning how to cook. Imagine that, a thirteen year old finding work in order to learn to cook? These simple skills that are usually taught to girls by their mothers were skills Luz Adriana learned from strangers out of necessity.
After studying the value chain of handicrafts in the department of Cauca, CODESPA’s local team identified that there was great potential for these artisanal products in the market. The project approach included adding more value to the product and channeling this income to the women artisans to improve their social conditions and those of their families.
Many women like Luz Adriana have the desire, skill, and artistic ability to create beautiful woven pieces. Through Enredarte, Luz Adriana, along with many other girls and women, are taught weaving techniques and are welcomed into a group of supportive females who are simply trying to rise above poverty.
Being part of Enredarte is not just a way for women to find a source of income or learn a skill. Luz Adriana tells us that this project has given her much more than that:
“I enjoy the camaraderie of those around me and the opportunity to share with people of other municipalities…..
….Before this project, I was shy. Now I feel empowered. I can address an audience and express my ideas. I can assert my rights in a respectful manner, without offending others.”
Likewise, she sees that her colleagues have also benefited and even believes that some of them have embraced the opportunities even more than her, since they weave more and have managed to increase their sales.
This is CODESPA’s goal with the Enredarte con Identidad Network.
“With the project, we want to help 200 women between the ages of 18 and 35, who have suffered the violence of armed conflict, who have enormous difficulties in accessing education, income generation, land ownership and decision-making.
Our goal is for these women to increase their income by 20%. To this end, we aim to increase their productivity, improving their capabilities and the quality of their products.”
Luz Adriana hopes that, in a few years, the Enredarte Network will become a large, sustainable company that improves the financial situation and quality of life of those who belong to it. She wants others to be able to take advantage of the education and tools that CODESPA has provided through this project.
When Luz Adriana is asked how this has impacted her and her entire family, she smiles as she recounts:
“My son tells me that before we didn't eat rice or eggs for breakfast and now we can do it. Before we only ate what was sown and it's because the economy has changed. Thanks to God and to this project I have managed to train myself and achieve in this way that we do not lack food, that the children do not have to go to school with an empty stomach”.
Grateful for all the opportunities that have been granted to her and the doors that have been opened to her since she has been part of this project, Luz Adriana reflects on the role of women in society.
“Many women are at home waiting for the government to help them with nutritional support when we ourselves can work to support our families. I am also educating my children, so that they too learn and can later carry on our deal."
As we like to say: “Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day. Teach him to fish and he will never be hungry.”
Visit the Enredarte Facebook or Instagram page and see the beautiful artisanal products!