Background & How I became interested------------

Over winter break after a vacation in Costa Rica I headed to Nicaragua to join a WCCN (Working Capital for Community Needs) study tour. WCCN partners with organizations in Latin America to build sustainable economic opportunities that help people work their way out of poverty.

Our tour was focused on micro-credit lenders and borrowers - but WCCN also supports fair-trade, women’s empowerment and housing efforts throughout Nicaragua. We visited an eight-year-old sewing cooperative located in a fair trade zone two-bus routes outside Managua.

The members were relocated to the area by the government, after hurricane Mitch and now live in extreme poverty in the most densely populated community in the country.

For two years each woman worked 20 hours every week without yielding any salary, to construct and build their cooperative. They became certified as the first Free Trade Zone factory in the world to be operated by its workers.

With the encouragement of Jubilee House they began to sew exclusively 100% organic cotton imported from Peru. Jubilee House is now addressing multiple aspects of cotton’s production stages.I was able to tour their facilities and see first hand the action of producing organic cotton. They were growing, ginning, bailing, and in the process of building a spinning cooperative. I was really impressed with the product this community was generating and the impact the opportunities had on the individuals.