{"id":10132,"date":"2022-09-28T14:14:08","date_gmt":"2022-09-28T22:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/?p=10132"},"modified":"2022-09-28T14:14:08","modified_gmt":"2022-09-28T22:14:08","slug":"fighting-for-an-economy-with-equity-and-solidarity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/economy\/fighting-for-an-economy-with-equity-and-solidarity\/","title":{"rendered":"Fighting for an economy with equity and solidarity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Santos Claret Ajpop and Ang\u00e9lica L\u00f3pez Vicente are seated at a table the the Kuchub\u2019al Network. Both are protagonists of the Network\u2019s story, which began 15 years ago as a collaboration between eight organizations. Currently, it is made up of twelve. Its members make and sell local organic products: jams, chocolate, shampoo, canned goods, honey, syrups, tea, coffee, and others.<\/p>\n

Seated there, a rare sight since they are such dynamic women, they recall their 15-year-long fight to develop Kuchub\u2019al. Its genesis was the Inter-diocese Pastoral Letter that offered an agroecological platform provide technical assistance to rural and indigenous organizations and train them on food security and natural resources.<\/p>\n

Through this, eight organizations were brought together on August 31, 2007 to form the network. Not all have been able to persevere along the way. Three abandoned the fight and seven more joined later.<\/p>\n

Claret says that \u201cIt wasn\u2019t all fast, we went step by step.\u201d At first, when she was a member of the directory board, she went to markets in Quich\u00e9, San Marcos and Quetzaltenango to promote the Network\u2019s products. The beginning was difficult, but her hope of creating jobs in rural areas motivated her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI learned to make chocolate and multiplied by production capacity with 16 women. They were happy to have a source of income to help their children with their education. I bring all that I\u2019ve learned to the association and share it with my partners. We know that in order to work, all we need is knowledge.\u201d Claret, a member of the Association of Solidary Producers says.<\/p>\n

The Network works as a solidary economic model with three axes of work: agroecology, to support agroecological production and guarantee food sovereignty through local food sources; agroindustry, to promote the transformation of products through agroecological units of production; and commercialization, to exchange products at local markets with minority and majority clients. Its programs take into consideration gender equality, solidary education, responsible consumption, impact, and generational focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a big success. We women are not always given an opportunity, but through Kuchub\u2019al we were given training. We learned that women are equal to men, we were trained in gender and self esteem to value where we come from and our identity. We were given an opportunity. Women can work and earn an income. I don\u2019t depend on my husband. I have my own money in my pocket that I\u2019ve earned with my intelligence,\u201d says Ang\u00e9lica, a representative of the Mam People\u2019s Identity Association.<\/p>\n

Solidarity is synonymous with brothers and sisters giving each other a hand. That\u2019s how the members and foudners of Kuchub\u2019al define it. The member organizations are given technical training in production, administration, and commercialization. In addition, distribution and commercialization networks have been established, and let\u2019s not forget quality control mechanisms, certifications, and improvements in product presentation.<\/p>\n

The Network has achieved three major goals in the course of its fight: the integration of more organizations, the empowerment of women to transform decision making, and the acquirement of property to house its administrative offices. In the future, it plans on building a training center to offer food and lodging to the public, as well as a training school for agroecological initiatives.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
organizaciones<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Santos Claret Ajpop and Ang\u00e9lica L\u00f3pez Vicente are seated at a table the the Kuchub\u2019al Network. Both are protagonists of the Network\u2019s story, which began 15 years ago as a collaboration between eight organizations. Currently, it is made up of twelve. Its members make and sell local organic products: jams, chocolate, shampoo, canned goods, honey, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10128,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[411,425,410,415,413,453,422,435],"tags":[560],"class_list":["post-10132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alternative-economy","category-community-action-en-2","category-economy","category-environment","category-food-security","category-frontpage-en","category-women","category-xela-en","tag-guatemala-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10132"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10133,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10132\/revisions\/10133"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10128"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.entremundos.org\/revista\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}