11/16/2009 5:00 am
5 Steps to Social Change, by Judith Romano
Recently, the downturn in the economy has caused many women to re-evaluate their career paths and even shift priorities. For those of you brave women who are looking to do well while doing good, I offer some tips from my work with Mitz, in the hope that it helps lead you to fulfillment as an agent of social change and entrepreneur. Taking responsibility for the success – or failure – of an initiative on which my community depends has been both incredibly rewarding and daunting, but it is not impossible.
1) Look Close To Home
Mitz started from what I cared about most, not what I knew best. I was working as a teacher at Casa de los Niños de Palo Solo, the only Montessori school for low-income families in Mexico City. The school is a haven, but many children needed financial help to have the opportunity to attend. While the school was always stretching to try to reach more children, scholarships did not solve the problem entirely. Parents were often left to choose between food and shelter or education.
While I’d found individual donors to help some families with medical, nutritional and financial needs, this was not enough. For Palo Solo and the community to thrive, it was clear we needed to find a way to generate income for the school and to involve the community in the success of the school and the children it serves. The solution also had to go deeper and fundamentally change mindsets.
Click here to see photos from the Mitz cooperative.
2) Follow Your Passion, but Make a Studied Choice
While visiting the mountains near Palo Solo, I was approached by a Nahua Indian woman who asked me to buy a hand-woven bag intricately sewn out of scraps of candy wrappers. She simply said “mitz,” meaning “for you” in the traditional Nuahtl language. I was immediately charmed by the beautiful bag crafted from the only material available – bits of trash.
In 2003, the severe economic crisis in Mexico left 65 percent of our schoolchildren’s parents unemployed, and I looked to these beautiful handicrafts to become both a source of income and a way to teach children about the environment. A group of four women from Palo Solo went to the village to learn the weaving technique from the Nahua women. Children helped to collect scraps. We began to find customers, but we were searching for ways to make the project bigger – and more impactful than selling a few souvenirs.
3) Think Outside the Box, But Bigger
From the start, it was very clear to me that we had to alter the community’s attitude about poverty – from charity to productivity and dignity. The families of Casa de los Niños de Palo Solo needed an opportunity to provide for themselves so that they could grow and prosper.
Mitz is more than a moneymaking project. It is a program that is inclusive, educational, economically sustainable and environmentally friendly. The project now supports more than 140 families. Everyone plays a part in the process required to make a Mitz product and everyone reaps the benefits of success.
At the beginning it all happened quickly and easily. We began creating the demand, the clients rolled in and the four artisans we started with quickly became 100. As time went by the technique and quality of our products shared significant improvement.
We had a great idea, but in order to be successful, we needed an extra boost to get these bags on the market. Without formal business education, resources or the ability to distribute to the masses, we were in limbo.
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Christine, I’m so sorry for your pain both physical and emotional. Your story highlighs that often impersonal government does an inadequate job with it’s one-size fits all solutions. People need more personal support, a more customized approach that helps them meet their physical, social and spiritual needs. People need love and encouragement and we can’t reasonably expect government to provide those either.
I have an adult widowed handicapped brother. He gets some money from government, but he also has a full time job. In the past, most of his emotional support came from his family, and as we have moved to different towns, support has come from his church. They provide him with rides, and sometimes meals, home visits, and social opportunities.
Churches often help people during the holiday season with gifts and meals. I know through our church we provide both members and non-members with full Christmases including meals. But the effort is not limited to the holidays, rather we have an entire self-reliance system that helps people get back on their feet, financially, physically and emotionally. It includes a "bishop’s storehouse" of food, where individuals can "shop" for groceries for free. It is stocked and maintained by other church members who are asked to fast, for 2 meals every months, and then donate the money they would have spent on that food to the church. This is how we have the resources to feed the poor. It’s good for the waistline, too.
People need love, and a customized approach offered by caring people who will be supportive, and stay connected. Where a purely economic solution approach often falls short is that it usually doesn’t address the underlying social mores that allowed the poverty, corruption, and family disintegration to take hold in the first place. Improve the family finances, but if mom or dad is drinking the profits, or spending them on an adulterous affair, or on drugs, or the family is broken up through divorce so money is spread over two households, it’s like drilling holes in the bottom of a bathtub.
Self-esteem is important, but only as an intervening variable, since it’s been found that some of the most committed criminals have very high rates of self-esteem - but they have used it for nefarious purposes. Intergity, trust, and respect have been shown to play significant roles in economic sustainability:
Christine, you may already know of a church to which you can turn, or I can give you some specific instructions of how to find one. I’ll check back to see if you want that additional advice.
You are in my thoughts and prayers.