SUPPORT 450 FAMILIES OF ARTISANS IN COLOMBIA & protect our heritage
Today, we are calling on our community:
help us protect the livelihood of Colombian artisans and craftsmen, who are in a critic economic situation due to the COVID-19/Coronavirus quarantine. Maison Alma has always been dedicated to help these communities thrive, not just survive. Today, they need our support more than ever.
With every artisanal community that stops working, we potentially loose our heritage for ever.
With your help, we will not let that happen.
There are two ways that YOU can mobilize :
1. BUY ANY PRODUCT ON OUR ESHOP. We pledge all the profits from any sales on our website from Friday March 27th to April 27th to create a fund destined to pay for continued financial to the craftsmen that work with Maison Alma on a regular basis. Maison Alma will continue paying its workforce as regularly and punctually as ever, although all production has stopped due to strict quarantine restrictions in Colombia.
2. DONATE ON THE FOLLOWING PAYPAL LINK: https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8nIDZC42f0?_ga=1.38785891.1350188979.1567682214. We strive to support the entire rural community of artisans and not only the individuals that work with our brand; because we know it takes a village to surpass any crisis. This is a total of 450 families who either have no more work right now, or will not have any work in the following weeks. This translates to over 1,000 men, women and children.
If these communities are at risk, the preservation of this unparralled skill and craftsmanship is at risk at well.
Any donation goes a long way! No donation is too small to ensure the livelihood OF OUR COMMUNITIES: (groceries, water, electricity, gas and MEDICINE)
( with a $10 donation: You will supply 1 week of groceries in the artisanal rural communities)
Who exactly will you be helping?
1. An artisanal community of 180 artisans and their families, who live in the Guacamayas village, in Boyacá, Colombia.
2. Three tailor workshops in Bogota, Colombia, and their families.
3. One hand-bag workshop in Bogota, Colombia and their families.
4. One pompom weaver master in Bogota, Colombia.
5. An artisanal community of 260 artisans and their families, who live in the Sandona village, in Nariño, Colombia.
WHY DONATE?
We urge you to participate, as the artisanal communities are now entering a critical situation that will only continue to worsen:
These communities have no safety net. Their earnings depend on work on to week to week basis. Unlike Europe, the government does not provide unemployment aid in time of crisis.
All work has come to a full stop. These communities used to receive orders every week from around the world, but everything has been cancelled due to the closing of stores and frontiers.
Almost 50% of the adults in artisanal villages will be unemployed: Artisanal work represents most employment sources within these ultra-specialized villages. Leaders who dispatch the work to the entire population are now facing unemployment and panic within their communities.
95% of artisans are women, who sustain their family economically in an average household of 4. The men of the village work in the fields but concentrate on single crops – on which the village cannot rely on as nourishment. Thus, helping one artisan means helping an entire family.
They have no alternatives except us: Transportation between villages and cities has stopped, which blocks them to ship their existing merchandise. Some cannot even go to the bank in the nearest villages due to quaranteen, so they can’t access the few savings to buy food.
HOW THE PROCEEDS WILL BE EMPLOYED EXACTLY:
For the artisanal communities:
An entire village unemployed and idle, in quarantine, is a village that will suffer. For this reason; we have decided with the community leaders that all funds will be used to EMPLOY the families, and to pay each individual for crafts. This artisanal work can perfectly be done respecting the self-isolation measures, as they are crafts that are done AT HOME.
This way, we are not only financing the purchasing power to get groceries; we are helping the artisanal cooperative to create stock of their crafts that they will be able to sell in the future. Your donation will be an economic multiplier.
For the micro-entrepreneur workshops in Bogota:
Strict quarantine does not allow any of the individuals to keep working in their crafts – as no ‘home-office’ measures can apply to these crafts far away from their sewing machines and tools. Livelihood in Bogota is quite expensive, and prices for basic commodities are surging in non-central neighborhoods. This will help the mirco-entrepreneurs to pay the salaries of employees that do not work for Maison Alma, despite no economic activity.
Our goal is to raise $15,000 dollars.
Please see underneath the financial needs of each community, by week and month:
WHO WE ARE
Our Start-up is committed to the communities that have been by our side, growing with us day by day. For this reason, during these hard times ahead due to Covid-19/Coronavirus quarantine, we are committed as a company to continue to support the livelihood of all the individuals across our production lines.
My name is Daniela Bahamon, and I founded Maison Alma in 2017, with the will to create a sustainable fashion brand that would act as a spokesperson for Latin American aesthetics. Our name means: the ‘House of the Soul’, and we have strived to show the joyful and expressive soul of our continent and particularly of our home: Colombia.
Preserving the ancient traditional know-how and craftsmanship of Colombia is at the core of Maison Alma's mission. That's why our pieces are entirely hand made by tailors and artisans working all throughout our country. We currently employ 51 men and women, who are part of artisanal communities or micro-entrepreneurs.
HOW THE MECHANICS OF THE DONATION WILL WORK.
Maison Alma will transfer the funds that are donated / pledged, on a daily basis to all the communities we work with. We will do this through wire transfer / western union like services within Colombia. We will not wait until the end of the initiative, because the urgency to support these families begins NOW.
We will work hand-in-hand with all of the community leaders and micro-entrepreneurs to ensure that their entire community get the resources they need securely and fast. We have been working with these communities for 3 years building a relationship of trust. We will be extremely transparent on how the funds are allocated.
If you want any more information:
If you have any other questions or want to help in any other way, please don’t hesitate to contact us at daniela@maison-alma.com
For purchases on our e-shop: We'll be unable to ship your orders in the following weeks +, due to the quarantine situation, but we will be able to ship them to your home address as soon as DHL, Fedex and postal services regain normalcy.
We thank you for your support and hope that your families are safe.
Love,
Daniela Bahamon.
Maison Alma Founder.
Our Start-up is committed to the communities that have been by our side, growing with us day by day. For this reason, during these hard times ahead due to Covid-19/Coronavirus quarantine, we are committed as a company to continue to support the livelihood of all the individuals across our production lines.
Today, we invite you to mobilize and help us with that commitment
There are two ways that YOU can do this:
1. BUY ANY PRODUCT ON OUR ESHOP. Maison Alma will continue paying its workforce: we pledge all the profits from any sales on our website from Friday March 27th to April 27th to create a fund destined to pay for continued financial to the 50 artisans and craftsmen that work with Maison Alma on a regular basis. We will continue to pay them as regularly and punctually as we have done in the past, although all production has stopped due to strict quarantine restrictions in Colombia.
2. DONATE ON THE FOLLOWING PAYPAL LINK: https://www.paypal.com/pools/c/8nIDZC42f0?_ga=1.38785891.1350188979.1567682214. We strive to support the entire community of artisans and craftsmen and women, and not only the individuals that work with our brand; because we know it takes a village to surpass any crisis. This is a total of 450 families who either have no more work right now, or will not have any work in the following weeks. This translates to over 1,000 men, women and children.
Who exactly will you be helping?
Any donation or purchase will allow you to directly support the livelihood of the following communities:
The artisanal community of 180 artisans and their families, located in the Guacamayas village, in Boyacá, Colombia.
The artisanal community of the 260 artisans and their families in the Sandona village, in Nariño, Colombia.
Three tailor workshops in Bogota, Colombia, and their families.
One hand-bag workshop in Bogota, Colombia and their families.
One pompom weaver master in Bogota, Colombia.