MERCADO GLOBAL x LIVERPOOL LOS ANGELES
In celebration of women around the world, Liverpool has partnered with Mercado Global whose mission is to transform the lives of indigenous women and their families in Central America. Together we have created a chic limited edition tote and matching makeup clutch, each handmade by caring artisans. These beautiful pieces are available for purchase in support of International Women's Day and Women's Empowerment Month, March 8. Proceeds from the sale of Liverpool x Mercado Global will directly impact the women who weave these collections...and inspire the women who wear them.
About Mercado Global
Mercado Global considers the assistance it provides as a hand-up as opposed to a hand-out. The organization not only works to provide rural Indigenous women with work opportunities through its International Market Access program, but also prepares women with both the knowledge and tools to successfully start their own local businesses that function completely outside of their work with Mercado Global. Mercado Global is a nonprofit that helps women artisans build their own businesses and break the cycle of local poverty. The organization does this through a three-pillared model.
How Does Mercado Global Work?
PILLAR 1: Community Based Education
Mercado Global also provides community based education classes in local languages to artisans involved in their programming. These classes focus on a wide range of things including, nutrition, leadership, business development, finances, entrepreneurship, amongst others. These classes provide the women with the knowledge they need to create their own local businesses and run them successfully. There is no charge to artisans for this service.
PILLAR 2: International Market Access
Mercado Global connects women-run cooperatives with international retailers to allow them to earn two to three times more per day than what they could otherwise earn locally. This income allows them to send their children to school, often for the first time, and provide nutritious foods and healthcare for their families.
PILLAR 3: Asset Development
Mercado Global's asset development work helps to provide artisans with the tools they need to not only produce goods when they work on orders for Mercado Global, but also when they are producing goods for their own local businesses. The artisans are gifted these tools and have ownership over them. Mercado Global also has a savings incentive program to help support artisans in building their individual and group savings.
CREATING INTERNATIONAL LOVE
Together we have created a chic limited edition tote and matching makeup clutch, each handmade by caring artisans. These beautiful pieces will premiere in shops across the country and at Liverpoolstyle.com in conjunction with our International Women's Day Celebration, March 8. Proceeds from the sale of these bags will directly impact the women who weave these collections ... and inspire the women who wear them.
Get to know the women who champion empowerment and are empowered by this incredible organization.
MARIA CUMES MORALES
What do you love most about your work?I love the people I get to work with - both our staff and our partner artisans. It's wonderful to get the chance to work in partnership with people from all over Latin America, with such varied professional backgrounds, who have all come together to do this work. At the same time, it's exhilarating to have the chance to work in partnership with the women artisans, and to see the impact of our sales and programming in real time. I love that everyone is here for the same reason - that we have such different backgrounds and life experiences, but are united by our shared commitment to our mission to help our partner artisans create a better future for themselves and their families. It's truly a privilege to get to do this work.
What does women’s empowerment mean to you?To me it means recognizing and ensuring that women have the ability and support needed to create the type of life they want for themselves. It is central to our ability to tackle the problems and challenges we face as individuals and as a global community. Women's empowerment is tied up in the solution to so many social justice problems we face as a global community: poverty, economic exclusion, a need to strengthen our democracies, the migration crisis, and of course global warming. When women have the ability to advocate for themselves, to earn their own income, then all of the sudden so many other things are more achievable, and the future is brighter not just for her, but for her whole family and for her community.
How are women’s lives being transformed as part of your work?It is unbelievable how a woman's life can change when she has a chance to earn her own income. It is exciting to see how things change for our partner artisans within a year or two of partnering with Mercado Global. At a very basic level, many women change how they carry themselves. When women have not had the chance to go to school or have a say in their family's finances, and when they have dealt with pervasive discrimination based on their gender and race their entire lives, their self esteem and belief in themselves can be very low. It is exciting to see how things can change as our partner artisans progress through our community-based education and business development programming, and as they have a chance to sell to major international fashion brands such as Liverpool LA and earn the income they need to send their kids to school themselves. They change how they hold themselves. So many of the women we serve are such talented entrepreneurs and leaders - they just needed the training and market access support to be able to achieve their potential.It's exciting to get to be part of this.
What is one thing you wish for people to know about you, and Mercado Global?Mercado Global's heart and soul are our core values: Partnership, Authenticity and Respect. We strive to build an organization that embodies these values, and use this as our compass to guide decision making and how we work with our partner artisans and with our partner clients and donors. It is exhilarating to build an ecosystem that connects major fashion brands, rural indigenous women artisans, major Fortune 500 companies, and women consumers across the Americas in a business model that empowers everyone involved to partner and actively build the world we want to live in. When you bring together people from different life paths, different countries or different industries who have never worked together before, you unleash a type of energy. It is EXCITING to help fashion brands sell products that not only meets their financial goals but also helps moms send their kids to school. It is EXCITING to give women consumers the ability to harness their power as consumers to build a world that empowers other women - to vote for companies that empower women. It is EXCITING to help indigenous women in rural communities build their own businesses, and get access to an international market and to major income in a way that has never been available to them before. We are changing what the future looks like not just for women but also for the world, and it's exciting to get to be part of it.Why are collaborations like our Liverpool x Mercado Global so important?There are so many reasons why Liverpool's collaboration with Mercado Global is important. At a very basic level, it is providing huge amounts of income to women who live in one of the most impoverished regions of the world - where most kids don't have enough to eat and where so many little girls don't have the chance to go to school. But beyond that, this type of collaboration helps us build a bigger market for our partner artisans in a much larger way. Liverpool has access to a distribution network of stores, to a customer base, to influencers and press, that Mercado Global can only dream about. By telling the story of our work to its customers, clients and industry supporters, Liverpool is helping us increase the visibility of our artisans' products and laying the groundwork for us to help them access a bigger international market in the future.Liverpool also is donating back its share of proceeds from sales to support our programming on the ground for our partner artisans. As a nonprofit, we rely on donor support to be able to provide the business development support, the technical training and the floor looms and sewing machines that artisans need to access the international market. We are so grateful to Liverpool for taking the time to tell the story of our partner artisans and the work we do, and to donate back proceeds from sale of the collection to help us reach more women in rural Latin America.
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
“Through Mercado Global’s education and training programs women have been given the opportunity to help themselves rise above adversity, to become entrepreneurs and role models to their children. While on my first Insight trip to Guatemala I was able to hear directly from our artisans how they love what they do and are appreciative of the opportunities our company has given them. I saw mothers with their babies and young children able to work in clean and healthy environments while caring for their young. They valued their work, their efforts, their income and their self-esteem. They truly felt empowered in their journey of entrepreneurship. I have been deeply moved by the impact our business model has had on their lives, and to know that I have had some small part in this transformation is truly inspiring and life changing for me.”
Maria is also the founder and owner of Lei-Lei, another impactful company that supports and empowers women artisans from around the world.
“Having lived in Guatemala for 12 years the urge to give back to a country that has given me so much is very strong. Mercado Global is the first organization that I have come across (and I have met and worked with many) that has a plan that addresses short, medium and long term development goals in a sustainable way. Our family had made the decision to focus on direct one on one interventions because we could find a way to be a part of facilitating meaningful and lasting change at scale, until we found Mercado Global.”
“As we formed this collaboration with Mercado Global I thought I had a sense of what it meant to work with a non-profit organization and why this is such a meaningful cause. What I didn’t anticipate was an opportunity to visit and connect with the Mercado Global team and their artisans in Guatemala. To meet and observe directly these incredible women as they carefully craft these beautiful products, to hear them speak with such heartfelt emotion as they describe how this work empowers them and other women, the people, and the country of Guatemala, gave me a profound understanding that in turn makes this collaboration all the more meaningful. I have walked away from this experience more educated and in love with the beautiful color of the country and its people, and I am truly grateful to be a part of such a wonderful organization and for teaching me the true impact Mercado Global is making, one bag at a time.”
