Mercado Global, a fair trade nonprofit that uses markets to empower indigenous women artisans in rural Guatemala, unveils its Winter Artisan Collection Thursday at the Napa Valley Museum,

55 Presidents Circle in Yountville from 6:30-8:30 pm. 

Proceeds from the benefit will fund financial literacy and business training programs to double the number of women’s cooperatives Mercado Global partners within Guatemala.

The evening features Mercado Global Executive Director Ruth DeGolia and Kristy Caylor, the designer from the Gap “Red” campaign now working with the Guatemalan women on their designs.

Photographer Suzanne Becker Bronk will show an exhibition of Napa Valley’s Mercado Global role models wearing the artisan pieces.

They include Lauren Ackerman, Debbie Baldini, Maria Esparza, Jeri Gill, Sally Gordon, Sabine Hirsohn, Heather Jackson, Dr. Rebecca Jackson, Julie Johnson, Dorothy Lind-Salmon, Melinda Mendelson, Frances Ortiz-Chavez, Deborah Rodriguez, Mary Ann Tsai, Kristine Waldenburg, Deb Wallace, Irit Weir, Kate Weis and Dr. Rhea Zimmerman.

Mercado Global sales provide fair-wage income to more than 360 artisans, in 31 cooperatives, and 2,100 dependents, allowing proceeds to be reinvested back into the communities.

As a result of working with Mercado Global the women artisans, including many widows or returned refugees from Guatemala’s civil war, are now able to significantly contribute to their household income, send their children to school, and provide more nutritious foods for their families.

For more information about Mercado Global contact Michaela at Michaela@mercadoglobal.org. 

For an invitation to the event or additional photographs, contact Suzanne Becker Bronk at 257-1513 or e-mail suzanne@photodance.com.

About Mercado Global

Founded in May 2004, Mercado Global is a non-profit organization that links Guatemala’s most rural and economically-disadvantaged women’s cooperatives to the U.S. market through a model that provides both fair-wage employment and investments in community’s longterm development.

Ruth DeGolia, Mercado Global’s executive director, worked with rural women’s cooperatives in Guatemala’s western highlands that struggled to find markets for their traditional crafts.

In May 2004, Ruth was named among the World’s “Best Emerging Social Entrepreneurs” by the Echoing Green Foundation, which provided the founders with a $90,000 grant to launch Mercado Global.

Most recently, DeGolia was presented with the “Leadership in Innovative Ideas” award from the Social Enterprise Alliance, and was featured on the cover of Newsweek magazine.

For more information please visit www.mercadoglobal.org or follow our blog at http://fairtrademercado.wordpress.com.