Fundación ACDI/VOCA Latin America (FAVLA) is supporting Pepsico to promote tangible and sustainable opportunities for the socioeconomic inclusion of two groups of indigenous women entrepreneurs. Pepsico, in partnership with FAVLA, will link artisan women with productive chains and provide them with the skills they need to start their own businesses and become agents of social transformation in their communities.
Project Objectives
- Strengthen the technical, administrative, and commercial skills of participants.
- Foster soft skills development, self-recognition, and self-care and promote the development of life projects for participants.
- Establish productive chains and commercial partnerships that allow for business growth and improve the distribution chain.
- Promote product innovation and technological inclusion among participants to help them facilitate their own organizational processes, disseminate knowledge among their communities, and position their products for retail.
Project Activities and Approaches
- Implement the DecidoSer program to promote skills that reflect a positive vision and realistic perceptions, behaviors, and attitudes among participants.
- Provide textile designer mentors, who can advise on the technical quality of fabrics and reinforce learnings from virtual tutorials, to help participants build skills around several concepts, such as value chains, SWOT analysis, fair pricing, product photography, and social media.
- Launched the Weaving Dreams collection at a showroom in Casa en Casa Santamaría, a design house in Bogotá, and held a discussion on ACDI/VOCA Colombia’s Instagram account, featuring Iris Aguilar, a Makuu leader, and Blanca Tarapués, a Chavialas leader, who spoke with other local designers.
- Designed the branding and communications strategies for Iris Aguilar and Blanca Tarapués’s business ventures, Wayaa Makuu (@wayaamakuu) and Somos Chavialas (@somoschavialas), to help introduce the artisan enterprises into the market, carry out direct sales of handicrafts, and give a voice to indigenous communities through Instagram.
Funder: Pepsico
Project Director: Carolina Blackburn, cblackburn@acdivoca-la.org
