First Tapestry Training a Success!

TEACH A MAN TO FISH; TEACH A WOMAN TO CROCHET!

Tapestry International recently held our first official training session from Oct. 12-13th in what we are dubbing our “launch country,” Guatemala. We had over 100 registered women represented at the training session from over 10 villages around the Quiche Region of Guatemala; speaking 4 unique languages.

The women who joined us for training in Chicaman, Guatemala (a centrally located meeting place with a large enough place to house a 2 day training for 100 women) required the women’s waking up in the early hours of the morning, hiking 2 plus hours to a bus station or local church where they could pick up a ride down the mountain in the back of a pick up truck for another hour to 2 hours of travel. Some women walked the entire way down the mountain to take part in training.

The travel alone to get to Chicaman for training was taxing and evidenced the desire in these women’s heart for new opportunity and skills that can ultimately help them provide for their families. Training was a whirlwind! Our team arrived early to begin setting up chairs, projectors, registration tables, and sorting training materials before the literal truck loads of women began arriving. As tired as they visibly were upon arrival, because of waking so early and traveling so long, there was an excitement and eagerness that was palpable among the women as they began registering and received their breakfast and training materials. Power points, books and hand outs were used to help the trainers teach and to impart the vision of how these products could potentially be sold in the US and online.

You would think explaining this to illiterate women through 3 translations and 4 speakers would make vision casting nearly impossible; however, the opposite was true as the eldest woman at training stood up on her own accord at the beginning of training day two and affirmed the vision to the women of her region.

We quickly found ourselves with a challenge as some women were capable of creating beautiful elaborate crocheted and embroidered pieces, while others had never picked up a crochet needle. Women were divided into groups based on skill level and village. Each group was then given a designated trainer. We were blown away by the women’s ability to catch on to the skill of crocheting, to expand their existing skill set and adopt certain color and pattern requirements we gave them. These women were relentless workers. Many carrying their young babies on their backs and nursing while learning to crochet and even crocheting while waiting in line for meals. By the end of the first day we had to quickly drive over to the next town to buy more yarn because the women had caught on so quickly and finished products more rapidly than we anticipated.

When we arrived to training on day 2, many of the women were eager to show us projects they had completed. One girl who was 15 named Santa created an incredible phone case, others created flowers to be used in accessorizing purses, headbands, etc. And using their own children’s feet as a guide they created a ton of crocheted baby booties in the most adorable colors. Tapestry’s first training session was far beyond anything our team could have asked or imagined it to be. Women left with not only new skills but dignity and a sense of hope. We anticipate smaller more intimate training sessions to be held in each participating village on a monthly basis before the year ends.

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