Beautiful Baskets, Beautiful Lives

Meghan Howard is FMSC’s MarketPlace Coordinator. The FMSC MarketPlace was created in 2009 to directly support the livelihoods of artisans living in communities serving FMSC food.

Meet Egma. Her story is one of hope and empowerment and is a great example of FMSC’s mission in action: feeding the body and the spirit – both Egma’s and ours! Egma has lived in San Jose de Cusmapa, Nicaragua her entire life. Through our food partner, Fabretto Children’s Foundation (who receives millions of FMSC meals each year), Egma was given an opportunity to join Fabretto’s pine needle basket cooperative.

And Egma is not alone. Many other women and their families greatly benefit from being a part of the basket-making cooperative. Here’s a short video story about Teresa, a mother of three:

When asked about the basket cooperative, Egma said, “This job is a source of pride for me as a woman.” She works hard to support her family, which, like Theresa’s also includes three children. In addition to creating beautiful baskets, Egma is an important part of her community as an educator at a local daycare. While the children in the community eat nutritious meals from FMSC and receive a well-rounded education at local Fabretto schools, Egma and over 40 mothers like her are able to cover the costs of their children’s school fees and pay many other expenses by selling beautiful, handmade pine needle baskets to Feed My Starving Children for sale in our MarketPlace.

Our hope and goal is that Egma and Theresa’s stories are not the exception. Groups like the basket making cooperative (and our other artisan groups working in 14 countries) provide a sustainable solution model that help improve communities. FMSC and the FMSC MarketPlace strive to support their successes.

By purchasing a basket or any of handmade items we have available from the FMSC MarketPlace, you are supporting women like Egma and Teresa. Please visit the FMSC MarketPlace at www.fmscMarketPlace.org.