When Women are Educated, Lives & Communities Change
One exciting way we witness education within our Global Partners is the shared learning of their unique and individual crafts, including metalwork, basket weaving, dying, pottery, and even painting on local leaves. Many of these crafts have been passed down from generation to generation while others are new innovations, all creating opportunities for dignified employment and economic for the artisans.
A few of our partners provide additional educational opportunities as part of their thoughtful programming, including New Hope Girls, Lazarus Artisan Goods, and Moringa Madres.
New Hope Girls started in 2011 as a safe house in the Domincan Republic, serving women and young girls, and then grew to include employment opportunities for the women to make richly textured and colorful bags and accessories. They also started a school for the girls in the program, which opens the doors for eventual employment opportunities and allows a safe place for the girls to build confidence to change their futures and change their communities.
“Education helps break cycles of exploitation and replaces them with transformation”
- Joy Reyes of New Hope Girls
Across the Caribbean Sea to the west in Honduras, students receive three years of vocational training while obtaining their high school education at Lazarus Academy. This program is connected to Global Partner Lazarus Artisan Goods, and students are offered jobs as artisans after finishing their education making fine leather and wood home decor and accessories. These educational building blocks are foundations for the artisans to break cycles of poverty and exploitation, and create hopeful futures for themselves and their communities.
For the women of Moringa Madres in Mexico, their stable and dignified employment has allowed them to return to school and further their education. Yazmín, one of the tea pickers, shared with us in Spring of 2023 that her employment enabled her to purchase her school uniform, books, and tuition. This opened up the opportunity to further her education, and Yazmín is now attending Nursing school.
When women are educated, they learn valuable crafts and skills providing job opportunities for dignified employment, breaking the cycles of exploitation. When women are educated, they gain the confidence they need to advocate for themselves and rewrite their stories. When women are educated, they change their communities, their countries, and the world.
Learn more about Shared Trade and view our Global Partner Directory.
