15 Job Training for the Poor in Guatemala Mercado Global (“MG”) is succeeding in its mission of helping people help themselves. It supplies education, market access, and the opportunity to escape a level of poverty that none of us can possibly imagine. MG epitomizes HOT’s efforts to leverage its funds and teach people to help themselves. MG gives rural native women in Guatemala, a country where ¾ of the indigenous population lives on under $2 a day and more than ½ live on less than $1.25 per day, the tools and skills to support themselves and their families by training them to be successful artisans and entrepreneurs. MG forms Artisan Co- Ops and arranges sales to international companies such as J Crew and Levi Strauss; where the artisans receive their pay based on their individual production. The co-ops’ “profits from sales” and contributions to MG are used to teach business and financial literacy, nutrition and leadership programs. The women use their increased “wages” which average $12 per day (or six times what ¾ of the indigenous population lives on) to pay for books and school supplies for their children. 13 years ago, after completing a beaded jewelry course that HOT paid for, these women were able to produce beaded eyeglass necklaces for a major eyewear company in the U.S. Through this order, women earned 12 times more per day than they were previously earning. The women used the additional income to buy shoes, school materials and more nutritious food for their children. Over the years we have made more than 50 grants including (i) paying instructors to teach the women different skill sets in ceramics, sewing and weaving (ii) funding loan programs where the women borrow money to purchase sewing machines and repay their loans with part of the incremental income they receive from the increased production from the machine. Most of these loans have been fully repaid and re-loaned, further leveraging our donor’s gifts, (iii) paying for the ground transportation and supplies for a Case Western Medical Team that taught the Artisan Communities the importance of nutrition, sanitary procedures, clean drinking water, and the basics of 20th and 21st century medicine, and (iv) Emergency Assistance Program used for dire, one-time personal crisis’s. Every grant we have made to MG has had an immediate impact on the artisans and their families. Health, Schoolbooks, and Food – what could be more important??? MG’s current wish list includes: • $3,465 for Pap smears and other testing for 185 women • $9,388 for new technical courses that will teach the artisans additional sewing and weaving skills.