Our Social Impact

Our Impact – Empowering Marginalized Women

Our programs are helping to build cooperatives in communities that have previously been exploited by middlemen who pay unfair wages that keep women and families in poverty.  We are connecting women artisans to sales opportunities that provide a fair and sustainable income so that they can send lift their families out of the cycle of poverty.

Our programs are also building up women as leaders in their homes and communities.

  • Our partner artisans are more actively participating in leadership roles in their communities – an increase of 22% from 2008 to 2009.
  • The percentage of artisans reporting that they participate in financial decision making and money management in their households has increased nearly 40% from before they partnered with us.

Our Impact – Increasing Access to Education

Mercado Global’s sales opportunities are helping mothers send their children to school, an opportunity many of them did not have growing up.  Our partner artisans have, on average, less than 3 years of formal education.  However, through a combination of increased income for local mothers and direct Mercado Global scholarships, 100% of elementary school-aged children of our original partner artisans are enrolled in school for the third consecutive year.

Studies show that putting a dollar into the hands of a woman in the developing world is the best way to ensure that this dollar gets to her children, and that it’s invested in their education. And by educating these children, we ensure that they can go on to strengthen and contribute to the local economy and in turn provide an even brighter future for their own children.

Our Impact – Improving Health & Well-Being

Mercado Global is ensuring mothers have the income opportunities they need to provide nutritional foods and healthy homes for their families. In a country where the health and nutrition rates for rural indigenous people are extremely dire – 50% or rural Guatemalans lack access to electricity, 28% lack access to potable water, and 67% of children suffer from chronic malnutrition – Mercado Global partner artisans and their families are experiencing unprecedented health and nutritional rates.  Nearly 100% or our partner artisans report having access to electricity and potable water, and a vast majority have been able to install paved floors in their homes (as opposed to dirt floors) which decreases their susceptibility to disease.