We are happy to be able to share our success with organizations devoted to improving and enriching people’s lives through better health, education and a healthy environment.
Our business ventures in South America have deepened our appreciation for the wonderful people who live there, as well as for the incredible arts of Peru that provide us with so much design inspiration.
PIONEERING WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT IN LATIN AMERICA
Pro Mujer is a leading women’s development organization.
Since 1990, Pro Mujer has been providing women in Latin America with the vital services necessary to become financially independent, healthy and leaders in their communities.
The native empires that ruled Latin America for hundreds of years are gone now being replaced by rapid urban expansion. The Latin American women are trapped in a degrading stage that is passed from generation to generation. These women are extremely hard workers, often laboring from early in the morning until late in the night, trying to make enough to support themselves and their families.
Why is it that a certain segment of women work harder than anyone else around them and yet they are consistently confined to a second class life? Part of the problem is an oppressive social system that breaks their spirit, and ultimately strips them of self confidence.
In 1990, Carmen Velasco and Lynne Patterson launched an innovative enterprise to help Latin America’s poorest women to build businesses to empower Latina women as well as support themselves and their families.
Landing groups led by the women themselves give out very small loans to help business owners become more efficient.
This network of women started in El Alto region of Bolivia and spread through the country. Nicaragua joined the network in 1996, Peru joined in 1999, Mexico in 2001 and Argentina in 2005.
Other micro finance organizations keep preference to more financially secure applicants, but Pro Mujer remains firmly committed to serving the neediest women, because for Pro Mujer the business of giving loans is just one step towards their grater goal: improving the lives of impoverished women.
Pro Mujer’s mission is to provide Latin poor women with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through micro-finance, business training and healthcare support.
Pro Mujer is investing in women’s dreams!