Ruraq Maki

In Bolivia, microloans lift thousands of women from poverty | UNDP

Sun, 26 May 2013 10:01:13 -0400

In Bolivia, microloans lift thousands of women from poverty | UNDP:

A microloan programme in Bolivia is helping rural and indigenous women open small businesses and receive skills and management training to improve their livelihoods.

Empowering Women | Fair Trade USA

Sat, 25 May 2013 09:00:54 -0400

Empowering Women | Fair Trade USA:

“Fair Trade strives to help women realize their full potential and to get the respect in their communities that they deserve.”

Celebrate Women at Ruraq Maki's 2nd Annual Silent Auction | Facebook

Fri, 24 May 2013 17:13:08 -0400

Celebrate Women at Ruraq Maki's 2nd Annual Silent Auction | Facebook:

Our BIG annual fundraiser is just 1 month away! Celebrate the amazing women we serve on June 23rd at the Women’s Building in San Francisco. Food, wine, beer, and pisco cocktails by BarSol will be provided, as well as live entertainment and traditional Peruvian dancers!

How to start a fair trade campaign in your community

Thu, 23 May 2013 08:01:36 -0400

How to start a fair trade campaign in your community

New Feminists: Young, Multicultural, Strategic, and Looking Out for Each Other

Wed, 22 May 2013 07:01:03 -0400

New Feminists: Young, Multicultural, Strategic, and Looking Out for Each Other:

“The new feminists are not predominately affluent white women with Ivy League credentials and parents who can afford to pay off their college loans. They are women from struggling families, immigrant women, and women of color.”

Check out this beautiful infographic about the state of...

Tue, 21 May 2013 12:14:22 -0400

Check out this beautiful infographic about the state of women’s right around the world.

Value Statement

Wed, 15 May 2013 08:32:27 -0400

Value Statement:

All women and girls should be free to live to their full potential, free from all forms of violence and discrimination. All women and girls should have access to their human rights, including acces…

Inside Freedom Project- Inside Out- a wonderful video of...

Tue, 14 May 2013 12:48:40 -0400

Inside Freedom Project- Inside Out- a wonderful video of incarcerated women in Columbia, interviewed about their hopes and goals upon their release. So moving as these women’s dreams are so like those of the women we work with.

Jackson Katz with Ted Talks on how men can stand with women in...

Thu, 09 May 2013 08:01:29 -0400

Jackson Katz with Ted Talks on how men can stand with women in the fight against violence against women.

Wonderful video by Plangirls about investing in girls!

Wed, 08 May 2013 07:00:48 -0400

Wonderful video by Plangirls about investing in girls!

Want Real Disruption? 3 Reasons to Invest in Women

Tue, 07 May 2013 13:48:17 -0400

Want Real Disruption? 3 Reasons to Invest in Women:

We have learned a lot about the power of investing in women. Yet one truth rules them all: when you invest in women, you change everything.

Ruraq Maki (ruraqmaki)

Mon, 06 May 2013 08:01:32 -0400

Ruraq Maki (ruraqmaki):

Ruraq Maki is using Pinterest, an online pinboard to collect and share what inspires you.

Ruraq Maki is now on Pinterest! Follow us & see photos of our products,wish list, Peru, Bolivia, nonprofit we love, & more!

This is the century for women and gender equality

Sun, 05 May 2013 13:01:15 -0400

This is the century for women and gender equality:

It is about time!

"“One Girl with Courage is a Revolution” “Studies show that over 60% of illiterate..."

Sat, 04 May 2013 11:01:08 -0400

“

“One Girl with Courage is a Revolution”

“Studies show that over 60% of illiterate youth globally are girls and that women and girls make up the majority of the world’s poor; they also show that just an extra year of schooling increases women’s wages by up to 20% later in life. Educating girls yields a higher rate of return than any other investment in the developing world.”

”

- http://blogs.state.gov/index.php/site/entry/one_girl_nepal

Photo

Fri, 03 May 2013 08:01:28 -0400

Trek On

Thu, 02 May 2013 14:51:07 -0400

Trek On:

Check out this organization by Ruraq Maki ex-volunteer (who designed our website). Trek On promotes ethical, fair, and sustainble treatment in the trekking industry by conencting YOU with local trekking guides.

By Girleffect.org

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 12:28:35 -0400

By Girleffect.org

Why Weaving- Part 3: How weaving restoration helps women

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 16:02:25 -0400

One of the most successful weaving restoration programs was formed in response to the cultural decimation of the Jalq’a community in Bolivia. Anthropologists of the Southern Andes (ASUR) has restored Jalq’a culture and economy through it’s ability to reach an international market and by making weaving economically viable for the Jalq’a community (Healy, 2001). The primary group to benefit from ASUR’s program are women weavers, who not only gained economic power, but were also given more leadership opportunities in their families and communities. With an increase of self confidence, spurred by economic independence, female weavers are shifting the traditional power dynamics between men and women.

Creating economic opportunities for women also creates greater opportunities for women’s families, as women are shown to be more likely than men to invest their earnings in their children and community, especially education and health. For example, one of the women in the Yanamilla Prison program told us that she used the money she earned from our program to pay for her daughter’s university tuition- breaking the cycle of incarceration in her family.

Weaving restoration also helps women by creating a form of income that is drawn from their own community, as weavers are encouraged to use local resources and knowledge stemmed from their culture. This model not only preserves cultural traditions such as weaving, but on a larger level, reinforce a community’s group ethnic identity and indigenous autonomy (Stephens, 1991).

Ruraq Maki believes that by creating economic opportunities for women through traditional knowledge, women are shown that their skills and ideas have equal value and are thus encouraged as leaders. When women have confidence in their ability and capacity to lead, profound changes are on the horizon.

Resources used for this 3-part series:

Cohen, J. H. (1998). “Craft Production and the Challenge of the Global Market:

An artisan’s cooperative in Oaxaca, Mexico”. Human Organization. 57(1), 74-82

Eversole, R. (2006). “Crafting Development in Bolivia”. Journal of International

Development. 18, 945-955.

Eversole, R. (2007). “Making Us Marketable: Reframing poverty through CED,

ethnodevelopment and women’s microenterprise”. International Journal of Business and Globalisation. 1 (3), 357-368.

Healy, K. (2001). Llamas, Weavings, and Organic Chocolate: Multicultural grassroots

development in the Andes and Amazon of Bolivia. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press

McCafferty, S.D., & McCafferty, G.G. (1991). Spinning and Weaving as a Gender

Identity in Post-Classic Mexico. In M. Blum Schevill, J.C. Berlo, & E.B. Dwyer

(Eds.), Textile Traditions of Mesoamerica and the Andes (pp. 19-40). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Stephens, L. (1991). “Culture as a Resource: Four cases of self-managed

indigenous craft production in Latin America”. Economic Development and Cultural Change. 40 (1), 101-130.

Stephens, L. (1991). Export Markets and their Effect on Indigenous Craft

Production: The case of weavers of Teotitlan del Valle, Mexico. In M. Blum Schevill, J.C. Berlo, & E.B. Dwyer (Eds.), Textile Traditions of Mesoamerica and the Andes (pp. 381- 399). Austin, TX: University of Texas Press.

Yetman, D., & M’Closkey, K. (2001). “The Sun is the Poor Mayo’s Cobija”: Mayo

weavers encounter neoliberalism. Anthropologica, 43(1), 71-86.

Zorn, E. (2004). Weaving a Future: Tourism, Cloth, and Culture on an Andean Island.

Iowa City: University of Iowa Press.

Isabel, the leader of a women's cooperative in Peru, got to share her story with Shape Magazine today.

Tue, 16 Apr 2013 12:51:05 -0400

Isabel, the leader of a women's cooperative in Peru, got to share her story with Shape Magazine today.

Why Weaving Part 2: The Decline of Weaving

Thu, 11 Apr 2013 13:35:16 -0400

Why Weaving Part 2: The Decline of Weaving:

Learn about why weaving is on the decline in Latin America