Ajquema K'aslemal Cooperative
Community of Zaput, Solola, Guatemala

Most women in the community of Zaput are widows from the violence of Guatemala's civil war. Economic hardship forced many mothers to leave their farming community and seek temporary work on coastal coffee and cotton plantations.

During the early 1990s, these women formed the Ajquema K'aslemal cooperative to create a support network of women artisans. Their artisan cooperative also allows mothers to provide for their children while still living in their native highlands community and maintaining Mayan weaving traditions. The Ajquema cooperative has initiated various local development programs in their community including building a community center and running a basic medicinal plants health project.

Due to the economic and psychological stress this community has exprienced, most women in the Ajquema cooperative never attended school. Without the benefit of bilingual public school education, women in Zaput exclusively speak Cakchiquel, one of Guatemala's 24 indigenous languages. Through Mercado Global's primary and middle school scholarships, mothers in the community have been able to send their children to school.

Cooperative members: 15
Indirect beneficiaries (family members): 80