At the beginning of a recent needle-point workshop in the Pacutama community last month, we asked the women why the older members weren’t there.“They have bad eyesight so they figured they wouldn’t come to a workshop on needle point embroidery” to which we replied, “No, tell them to come! We have reading glasses for them!”… View more
To celebrate our work together in 2019 Yabal took our 41 backstrap loom weavers to the Xetulul amusement park, in Retalhuleu, Guatemala. The park is a major tourist destination about 2 hours from their community and is similar to Disney Land. Tourists from all over Central America travel to Guatemala just to visit this the… View more
Check out this awesome round-up from EcoCult of the best Ethical Home Decor brands, including yours truly… Yabal! Check out what they have to say: I won’t claim to know much about feng shui, but I do know that environment matters—to our overall wellbeing, our creativity, our relationships, and our work ethic. Our homes are… View more
As part of this year’s oyster mushroom cultivation program with Yabal’s women weavers in Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan, Yabal offered a cooking workshop to give the women new ideas of how to incorporate this nutritious and delicious food into their daily diet. Oyster mushrooms are high in protein, iron, zinc, potassium, folic acid, B vitamins, vitamin… View more
above photo credit: Caroline Lindsell This year, Yabal began a new relationship with the artisan cooperative in Chichicastenango, called Utz Batz. They are a group of 10-15 women weavers that have worked together since 2008 as a fair trade artisan cooperative in order to create jobs for themselves. The town of Chichicastenango is famous with… View more
We had the pleasure recently to welcome doctor Kate Colwell to our women’s cooperative meeting in Pactuama, Santa Catarina Ixtahuacan. Kate specializes in helping artisans with healthy body dynamics, posture, self-care, and injury prevention. It was an important workshop to have with our group of 40 weavers and a great first introduction to the idea… View more
Inspired by the evening sky and the rolling colors of a moon on the rise. The Luna collection reflects a diverse landscape of rolling hills and deep valleys. The dark shadows and soft reflections of light that only Guatemala can inspire. The Luna collection is a collaboration between Minneapolis designer Araya Jensen and Yabal, some… View more
We had the opportunity this last week to check in on the progress of our community micro-credit and women’s savings circles in the communities of Pacutama and Chuicutama, and Cajola and it was inspiring to see the changes happening! Chuicutama Over 8 years ago, Yabal received a grant for Q15,000 for the community of Chuicutama… View more
Women’s Saving Circles in Pacutama, Chuicutuma, and Cajola This year began a new program with our women’s weaving cooperatives- financial literacy training and the formation of savings circles. We are extremely grateful to Catholic Relief Services for sharing their savings circles methodology to train our groups of women in this process. The two groups are formed of… View more
This past month Yabal had the opportunity to exhibit our new Eco Home accessories collection at the New World Craft Fair in Antigua, Guatemala. We’ve participated in the fair for the last three years but this year we were able to bring our weaving cooperative leaders as well! Thanks to the support from A Rum… View more
