25 May 2009

The Lavender Project / Solo Lavanda

Yesterday, Patricia Herrera paid for her water meter. Ordinarily paying for a water meter wouldn’t be newsworthy, but for Patricia the $70 she had just earned as her part of the proceeds from the weekend sale of natural handmade soaps produced by The Lavender Project was the largest sum of money she had ever held in her hands at one time.

The small sum of $30 paid for the water meter was all that was keeping Patricia and her five children from moving out of their one room bedroom that they had been sharing with Patricia’s in-laws for two years and into a small home of their own. In two years she hadn’t been able to save the $30 despite the fact that her husband,who was working somewhere in the U.S., regularly sent home small amounts of money to keep food on the table. It was all she could do just to keep her children clothed and fed.

Patricia’s story is typical of the six other women in the cooperative and in fact, of virtually all of the women in this tiny village of 900. Save for Elizabeth the original member of The Lavender Project or Solo Lavanda as they call it in Mexico, Lucia, Rosa Maria, Macira, Cristina and Margarita are all mothers of small children whose husbands, driven in desperation by economic hardship and drought, have left for the north to try and make enough money to feed their families.

But today, each one of these hardworking ladies has $70 in their pockets. This last weekend they sold $500 worth of their artisan soap in the craft market at San Miguel del Allende. A couple of weekends before that they had made $200 after expenses at a similar market. Best of all, several customers who had bought their soap the first time, came back for more, and one local merchant in San Miguel de Allende asked if she could come to the village and take some lessons on how to make soap!

Before The Lavender Project, none of these women really had a future and as a result, neither did their children.

To get to where they are now we have to rewind to the summer of 2005 when St. Anthony’s Alliance made its first visit to the village of Rancho in the central state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Kicking up clouds of dust on the Nopal cactus-lined streets of the village we chanced to meet Elizabeth Morales. A pretty, 26 year old with a sparkle in her dark eyes and a secondary education, she was a little different than the rest of the girls her age. For one thing she wasn’t married with children, a rarity for young women in her village, who by her age often had several young children. She told us she was waiting for something better. Although she made $100 a month working a part time job, she spent much of her time caring for her younger brother, whose severe kidney disease had made him an invalid. Living in a small block house with a corrugated flat tin roof with her sister, aunt and grandparents, Elizabeth had very little hope for a future.

By the time we met Elizabeth we were just starting our discussions with the village on beginning to grow lavender as an alternative cash crop and and economic venture, and we asked Elizabeth if she would like to be part of the project.

I took until October of 2006 before we had all of the pieces in place to get Elizabeth a J-1 visa to the United States for an internship with Rhetta’s Soap Company (despite the big name, Rhetta is the sole proprietor of her home based soap company) and Los Poblanos Inn and Cultural Center – an organic lavender farm and bed and breakfast in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Elizabeth was a quick study. Rhetta told us she didn’t know how she was going to live without her after she left! Hardworking, meticulous and a perfectionist, making beautiful and aromatic artisan soaps from scratch was a natural extension of Elizabeth’s talents.

At Los Poblanos, Elizabeth learned the inner workings of a lavender farm in full production. They taught her how to make lotions, sachets and other body products, how to harvest the flowers and make fresh lavender wands and bouquets, and how to make the lavender essential oil.

But St. Anthony’s Alliance and The Lavender Project still faced huge obstacles. Before coming to the United States, Elizabeth had never used a computer or done an internet search. She had no experience in production, inventory or marketing. But she had a willing spirit and an eye for design. And she wanted to do something for the other women in her village. Unlike many young women, Elizabeth didn’t surround herself with her friends; she sought out the most destitute women in the village, women with children and no visible means of support. On her return to the village she presented the idea of a soap cooperative to a group of women and six signed up.

It took almost a year to locate reliable sources of the raw materials in Mexico to make soap. Concurrently St. Anthony’s Alliance helped them write a preliminary business plan. With a $1500 seed grant from St. Anthony’s Alliance, the coop began slowly making soap, learning the intricacies and working up the courage to put a down payment of $60 on a booth at a crafts fair in San Miguel de Allende. Their first few markets were successful far beyond their wildest dreams. Now they are off and running.

The women are daring to dream, to make a plan for the future. Their horizons have expanded beyond the dusty highway of their village. One women’s husband may be able to come home soon if profits remain as they are or begin to grow.

St. Anthony’s Alliance has had lots of friends along the way – people who, like us, believe that if women are empowered, if they are given the means, they can overcome the extreme hardships of their lives to provide for their children and their families. We have received expert advice and valuable networking from Jeannie Ralston, whom we chanced to meet on a visit to San Miguel de Allende. Jeannie has just finished her first novel, An Unlikely Lavender Queen, chronicling her journey of self-discovery after moving from New York City, with her photographer husband, Robb Kendrick to start a lavender farm in Blanco County, Texas.

Linda Lowery Keep, author and marketing professional living in San Miguel de Allende, has become The Lavender Project’s biggest champion. Through her we are daring to dream about marketing the women, their story, and The Lavender Project in the United States, employing the concepts of Worldwide Fair Trade, creating opportunities for economically disadvantaged people with gender equality, good working conditions, capacity building, transparency and accountability. We hope to develop trading partnerships through alternative markets that will provide sustainable economic development for the long haul.

And, of course, we have had a continual stream of financial and technical support from out St. Anthony’s supporters.

The Lavender Project shows that with relatively small sums of money, training and hard work, new life is possible. When you, in the first world, buy a bar of soap from The Lavender Project in Rancho, Mexico, you aren’t just buying a heavenly cleansing experience, you are buying a future for these women and their children. You are purchasing their dream fro them one bar of soap at a time…