kenya

The Collaborative Group partners with the Maisha Collective to empower women refugee girls and young women from all over Africa. We provide economic opportunities to rebuild their lives with peace and dignity. By managing a business collective that designs and produces a line of unique tie and dye scarves, participants gain life-long business and marketing skills that develop their confidence and prepare them for future independence.

kenya | masai

The Collaborative Group works with a group of women called Nadamu Olosho (meaning Community Raiser in the Maaai language.) There are seventy-four women in the group, in a village called Aitong near the Maasai Mara. Most of the women have been beading and making jewelry for much of their lives - trained by their mothers and grandmothers before them. Fewer than ten of the women have finished secondary school so the income from their beading is directly tied to their ability to provide for their children and families.

togo

With staggering rates of HIV and little opportunity for women in this country outside of prostitution, our work in Togo is focused on creating a successful batik business for women in rural Togo. Through collaborations with our partners here in the United States, our artisans have created a sustainable business. Building upon that success, the cooperative is launching a program to bring employment to women who have been forced into prostitution, rescuing them from the streets and helping them find safer, more productive and healthier employment under her.

morocco

The Collaborative Group works with a cooperative of women led by Naema Birli. In this cooperative, women can pool their resources to create a contingent of workers who rely on one member to traveland sell their items. The women in Khenifra make threadbuttons using spools that are traditionally used to add accents and decorations to their scarves. To reach the tourist market, the women have begun using their buttons to make necklaces transforming a traditional craft into an exportable good.

morocco | midelt

Through this partnership the Collaborative group works with a fearless young woman leading a cooperative that produces hand woven Moroccan Carpets and more recently has started producing other products including bags and clutches.

india

In the eastern Indian village of Tope, we work with a community of sari weavers that are highly skilled in ikat -- an Indian weaving technique. A communal activity where women do the pre- and post- loom work and men perform the actual weaving, the families work collaboratively throughout the creative process. By partnering with us, these women are able to bring increased income opportunities into their communities which in turns builds social status and gives a voice to the village.

india | NEWS

In southern India outside the city of Trichy, we work with a cooperative of artisans. As nomadic peoples, they typically travel to sell their handcrafted mala or prayer beads at temple festivals. Because the festivals are seasonal, women struggle to make ends meet during the off months. We work to ensure they have stable orders that provide them with sustainable income throughout the year.

guatemala | sewing

As textile factories moved operations to Bangladesh and China, skilled female artisans were left without options for employment. Many experienced hardship and had difficulty providing for their families. But women joined together to form a cottage industry in their homes with better working conditions and more flexible hours but they struggled to find consistent work. We work to secure large orders that provide these women with sustainable income for their families.

guatemala | highlands

Working with four communities of Mayan Indians, these women utilize back-strap weaving to produce beautiful woven textiles. Skilled weavers -- but unable to transform the material into desired products -- they are often forced to sell to middlemen. We work to ensure fair wages by removing the middlemen and facilitating production between the two cooperatives, meeting the needs of both artisan communities.

dominincan republic

Here, the Collaborative Group partners with the Pujols Family Foundation to bring support to women in the Dominican Republic. Sugar is the DR’s main export, and the US is their prominent trading partner. Yet as US sugar imports have declined, many farmers have run out of business and are forced to travel in search for work. Women and children have been left behind, poor and unemployed. We work to provide opportunity to women where there is little or none.