For the last three months, we provided our students with all the necessary tools for the course. This year, we decided to open the doors to our community beyond just students, including the mothers of our elementary schoolers.

“I chose to participate to support my children. I am a single mother and I want to fight hard to support my children,” said Mrs. Marciala.

Having completed the course, Mrs. Marciala has already received an order for a dozen bags of one of her designs. She has an entrepreneurial spirit and is looking to continue her work.In total, 8 students completed the course: 6 scholarship recipients and 2 mothers. We couldn’t be more proud! Together, they created 67 gorgeous artisanal bags.

Ilse, one of our scholarship recipients, felt very inspired by the course. When we asked her why she wanted to participate, she said: “I like to be proactive in learning new things, and to be able to generate income for my family.” Ilse showed incredible commitment to the course; her bags were even sold at one of our US events recently!

Although it wasn’t always easy—with students facing challenges such as making bags that had a cinch—as Ilse and Mrs. Marciala stated, there were many meaningful and happy moments. “When I finished the first bag, it meant a lot to me because it was something new that I was learning, full of emotion and it opened doors for me to start a new path and pursue new opportunities” shared Ilse. “Getting started was tough, but when I finished and looked at my bag on the table, I felt better,” recounts Mrs. Marciala.

So far, we have sold 11 of the bags. That means we still have 56 bags available for sale.

We aim to sell all the bags, allowing participants to use the proceeds to purchase more supplies and continue their craft. In addition to the course itself, we offered an entrepreneurship workshop where we taught them business and marketing strategies.

Speaking of next steps, Ilse explains: “At the moment I already have two customers to whom I am selling my bags. At the moment I want to promote the ones I have already made so that people can see the craftsmanship and quality of the bags, and I can sell more of them. I want to create a customer base.” For Mrs. Marciala, the goal is “to continue creating bags and to go and sell them at all the markets in my area.”

If you are near the School of Hope in Guatemala and would like to own one of these beautiful bags while supporting our students, come pay us a visit!

We are glad to see our students empowered by these workshops in so many different ways. For Ilse, this course proved that “we as women can move forward on our own.” While Mrs. Marciala wants to send a message of empowerment to other women “I would like to tell women who are looking for work to keep pushing, to search for available learning opportunities, to try anything.”

Our donors are the ones who make these life-changing courses possible.

This course was made possible by the support of our incredible partner Project Apoyo! 🙌We couldn’t be more grateful for the immense dedication they have shown to our students and their families.