Mercado Global Helps Guatemala Girls Go to School

Aug. 11, 2006 — -- Three years ago, Ruth DeGolia and Benita Singh were college students whose studies led them to the lush western highlands of Guatemala.

While visiting tiny villages of families driven to the isolated region after the country's devastating civil war, they were struck by beautiful pottery, jewelry and rugs the women had crafted.

They noticed, however, that they had a limited customer base.

So DeGolia and Singh decided to help. They created Mercado Global, an organization of 15 village cooperatives whose goods are sold online -- at mercadoglobal.org -- and in catalogs.

The idea took off immediately.

"We basically set up some stalls at the Yale campus and sold out of two suitcases of products that we brought back from Guatemala," Singh said.

She and DeGolia contacted the women in the village and asked them what they wanted to do with the profits.

"They all told us that they wanted to send their girls to school," Singh said. "So those sales funded five scholarships for girls in our partner communities to attend school."

Education is often not seen as important for girls in Guatemala, but that is changing as women there get more earning power.

"They're finally making money in their families, and they're finally being able to have a say in terms of how that money is being spent," Singh said.

Before the women worked with Mercado Global, they earned about 20 quetzals to 25 quetzals, or about $3, a day working in the fields.

"We're helping them earn three to four times that per day, so it's pretty exciting," DeGolia said.

In just two years, Mercado Global's revenue has now funded primary schooling for 116 children, and this year it expects to make $600,000.

With that money DeGolia and Singh said they could begin sponsoring middle school age students as well.

The college students said they had no blueprint for creating Mercado Global.

"What we always say is that every consumer can be a philanthropist," Singh said.