En Via – changing women's lives

En Via is an organisation that, in part, blends tourism with the provision of interest-free micro loans to Oaxacan business women. When you sign up for a tour with En Via, which I did recently, you travel to the villages around Oaxaca to meet with women who have recently received loans, see their businesses and talk with them about their plans, and often, how these loans have changed their lives.

I have to say the this trip was very humbling and will stay with me for a long time. When a woman wants to join the program she has to sign up with two other women so they act as a support network for each other and ensure that they each repay their loans. They start with a 1,500 peso loan each – that's approximately $150 AUD! Marcelina used her first loan to buy an additional gas bottle for her restaurant. Now with two gas bottles she doesn't have to shut the restaurant at night when the gas bottle runs out, she can switch to the back-up and keep cooking, and there's no down time while she gets the first one refilled. Such a small thing, but it made the world of difference to Marcelina and her business.

The cathedral at Teotitlan del Valle.

Isabel was the first woman we visited in Teotitlan del Valle. She made lunch for all of us at her restaurant – she was such a sweetie. She and her husband run a weaving business, but during the off season for tourism she decided to start a restaurant to support the family during these times. All of these women's businesses are run from their homes. Along with the loans, they have access to small business training and other one-off courses. Isabel recently participated in a branding course that was run by graphic design students from Mexico City, so she now has a brand new logo for her restaurant. This may not sound like much, but to be able to paint it on the side of her house means that people can now recognise it as a business and it's made a world of difference for passing trade.

Dried pomegranate and the yarn dyed with it.

After lunch we went to see a family that make woven rugs on a treadle loom. Teotitlan del Valle is famous for its woven rugs. There we met Maria and her son and daughter-in-law Irene. Maria put on the most amazing display for us. She took us through their whole production process, from washing and carding the bundles of wool, dyeing the yarn and finally to weaving it.

She had each dyestuff on hand, and a matching skein of wool that had been dyed using that colour. She ground cochineal and showed us to add lime for oranges or bicarb soda for purples; she had marigold for yellow, indigo for blues, pomegranates for browns; a plant they grow locally for the greens (I didn't catch what it was called) and a root that grows in the mountains that they use for washing and softening the wool. It was an absolute treasure trove.

The ground cochineal.

Dyestuffs fermenting.

After stepping us through the dyeing process we then got to see the treadle loom and a demonstration on how the rugs are made. Below is a sample of the bobbins they use to make the coloured patterns. There was no way I could walk away from here without buying a rug to take home. You can see the one I chose at the bottom of this post – cochineal-dyed by Maria and woven by Irene. In fact they had to finish off all the ends while we were there as Irene said it had only just come off the loom.

After Teotitlan del Valle we went to the village of Santo Domingo Tomaltepec to meet a number of other women – all amazing in their own way – but the one that really got to me was Gloria. We sat around a table in her backyard that was covered in pieces she had sewn. Gloria is the local seamstress, called upon to do a lot of mending. People come to her to get zippers and buttons replaced, hems fixed etc. Before Gloria became part of En Via's program customers often had to wait a long time until either Gloria, or they, could travel into Oaxaca to get the replacement zipper or button. With her first loan Gloria bought a box of zippers and a variety of buttons. Not only could she buy them cheaper, meaning she could make a mark-up on the cost, but it also meant she could fix people's clothing on the spot – increasing her production.

Rugs for sale at Maria's place.

Gloria is onto her third loan and hidden underneath the items on her table was what she really wanted to show us – her pride and joy – the thing she has purchased with her latest loan – a brand new sewing machine! Now Gloria has started to make clothing to sell to women of the village and her dream is to one day have a little space of her own to work from.

It is almost shocking to think about how much we have in life when these women have so little. If you have the time, go on over to En Via's website and learn a little more about what they do. The afternoon I spent with them was really a highlight of my trip so far.