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Mery is a loving, respectful and very hardworking woman, who has dedicated her life to the well-being of her home, husband, children and grandchildren. Her crafts have provided her livelihood since she was very young. “With the fruit of these products, my children study, eat, dress themselves and much more”, says Mery Lopez, while talking about her work as a craftswoman, a job which she has been doing since she was a child and that today. At the age of 52, allows her to take home the only economic income from the household, since her husband cannot work due to an illness, he has suffered for 7 years.
“With what I earn, I invest in food, gas, electricity… My life has always been like this, I have been aware of the home, of collaborating. Since I was a child, I began to make handicrafts with caña fleche and now with plantain leaves.”
Mery has been a part of Orillo, an initiative that brings together artisanal women from the village in Santa Inés, in Turbo, Antioquia, who take advantage of banana harvest residues, or what is known as sock or selvage, to produce placemats, cup holders, baskets, mats and hammocks, which allow them to earn income for themselves and their families.
This is within the framework of “Weaving Dreams”, a project to empower rural artisan women, led by the PepsiCo Colombia Foundation and the ACDI/VOCA LA Foundation.
She arrived in Urabá, Antioquia, 35 years ago, after leaving Montería, Córdoba, “empty-handed and afraid that some thieves who had entered the farm that she and her husband looked after would return to retaliate against them after they would help recover part of the stolen cattle. We had no option of going anywhere and we left Córdoba here to look for work, we left the children with an aunt, and a year later, when I got the tickets, I went to look for them. I did not return to Córdoba until sometime later, because I was afraid that they would kill me”.
She began to work on the plantain farms. During the first year she walked from her house, she would leave at four in the morning to arrive at 6 am, the time at which she began her workday, she worked in the fields and at 6 pm she returned home. Later she bought a bicycle and the trip, which used to take 2 hours, became one. She did that for six years.
With the craft knowledge of the cañe flecha, which she learned when she was still living in her native Montería, she decided to innovate with the plantain leaf. eing a craftswoman has allowed her to dedicate herself to her home, have quality time, take care of her husband and enjoy her grandchildren.
“I get up at five in the morning to send my grandson to school, I prepare breakfast for him, I feed the chickens, I take a bath, I fix the kitchen, I organize everything and from there, when it’s eight o’clock I get to do handicrafts, I work from 8 to 10 am, more or less. Then I make lunch, wash up, and leave there until afternoon, when I go back to work, or if I must do something, I go out, return at night and around seven I start making the products or arranging material until 10 pm”.
Thanks to the project, Mery and the other entrepreneurs from Orillo, women of all ages, mostly mothers who are heads of households, received virtual and face-to-face workshops that allowed them to innovate and improve existing products, develop new ones, and learn how to properly calculate costs of production, to define prices according to the market. With access to new technologies, they managed to optimize the commercialization and marketing processes. In addition, they strengthened their skills for teamwork, conflict resolution, and assertive communication.
“We are very satisfied, we worked with the plantain leaf, but we had not done anything different. With the project we created other products that we had not thought of, they trained us, and we learned to make baskets, hammocks and mats. We tinted the selvage with colours so that there would be a different texture and improve the finishes. Before, we did not sell large quantities, with the project we have had very good sales”, says Mery.
The Orillo artisans have found in the plantain knitting the opportunity to work from home and care for their children, while earning income. “When we weren’t doing this, the other women planted and worked in the banana plantations, now We obtain income thanks to the banana socks that we take from our farms or buy from neighbouring farms. There are already many women who earn this income through crafts. We meet at the farm, we share the work and each one delivers their products the day before shipment, the quality is checked and dispatched. I hope, God willing, to go ahead and train more women.”
