Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Guatemala Partnership Manager

Candelaria's home doubles as a makeshift general store of sorts. Canned sardines; bowls full of white, red, and black beans; plastic jars of generic candies; cans of Kern's vegetable juice; and half-empty packs of cigarettes (not many people in Santiago can afford to buy by the pack) line the walls at one end of the small, one-room dwelling. Bunk beds fill the entire other side of the room, leaving little space for the five residents to move around. The building is a tarp and plywood structure with a corrugated tin roof situated just a few doors down from the houses of several other Just Apparel Partner Artisans.

The albergue, or displaced persons' camp, that has housed Candelaria and hundreds of others for over two years since the October 2005 mudslide that destroyed much of the neighborhood of Panabaj in Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala now boasts quite a few little stores like the one in Candelaria's house. They provide the necessities of life for the camp's residents, as well as the tiny luxuries that they permit themselves. They also act as a source of supplemental income for the families that run them.

Candelaria's family consists of her mother, a talkative woman with an expressive, wrinkled face; her father; and two young orphan nephews, Esteban and Diego. Ever since her sister died and her brother-in-law abandoned his sons, Candelaria, who is now twenty-four, has helped her parents shoulder the extra load of caring for the kids. She has been working on handicrafts since she was a young girl. The little bit of extra income she has been able to generate has helped cover the costs of her frequent illnesses.

When I spoke with Candelaria about her life and her decision to submit a sample of her work as an application to the IHF's Just Apparel initiative, she told me that her first handicrafts were simple thread bracelets. When those turned out not to be profitable, she learned how to do beadwork. She quickly found out, however, that there were too many other women in Santiago making the same sort of products. Not to be deterred, she practiced her embroidery. The practice shows in her work, which she says has gotten even better because of the training sessions she attended for Just Apparel.

Candelaria's goal is to earn enough income to support her family and help her nephews go to school. As Just Apparel grows, she is coming closer and closer to meeting that goal.

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