At first, it sounds depressing. A squatters’ village of 5000 women and children, 50 miles from Guatemala City, without electricity, clean water or sewage treatment, with violence endemic. As some mothers in the US buy Barbie notebooks and backpacks, choose cute clothing for Back-to-School, mothers here rotate days when each child can eat, spreading out the meagre food.
But stay tuned: el salitre means “salt,” which has a rich resonance in Christian scripture. (See Matthew 5:13-16.) It’s the juice, the spark, the seasoning when everything seems tasteless. Now the women of the settlement are working to transform their community for generations to come, providing food, child care and meaningful work. In partnership with North American women, they are learning vital sewing and embroidery skills, earning enough to provide not only material support, but to give them hope and confidence in their own creativity and entrepreneurship.
Hear the story in their own words.
- Judith, the sole provider for her family: “I worked first as a maid and then as a factory worker and had difficulty feeding my children. With this work I am able to feed my children, keep them in school, and have returned to school myself.”
- Lety: “I never attended school and have learned to read and write on my own since joining the cooperative, where I [also] learned to sew and embroider. With my work from the Center we are able to feed our children and keep the oldest two in school. If I successfully continue this work, the two smaller boys will be able to start school when they are old enough.” [Her photo in the annual report shows her holding smartly decorated tennis shoes and beaming.]
- Betsy Wack, board president: “in 2016, five of us asked five women living in intractable poverty, ‘How can we help?’ By 2022, we’d completed a new building, surrounded by a security fence, where ten women work and an educational center cares for 25 children. By now, the children no longer look malnourished, the women have bank accounts, health insurance and retirement benefits. They are poised to welcome new colleagues whom they’ll train on electric sewing machines.”
The products are marketed in Antiguan stores and on their website: www.elsalitrecenter.com. Vivid colors, sustainable natural fibers, and intricate hand embroidery make their clothing, purses and shoes immediately stand out from what we normally buy off the rack. Besides, that purse has a story! How many people can boast that their shirt, pants or shoes are keeping children from starvation? Or that they’ve joined the noble effort to “transform lives, one stitch at a time”?
Full disclosure: Betsy Wack has been a dear friend since high school, and for several years, I’ve deeply admired this, her generous, dangerous, crazy, wise adventure.
Grandparents Day is September 10 & the perfect gift is Kathy Coffey’s latest book, A Generous Lap: A Spirituality of Grandparenting, is available from Orbis Press, 800-258-5838
Kathy Coffey 