A Fundraiser for The Chol Chol Foundation!

We take a break from our regularly scheduled posts to give you an update! A request for donations! 🙂

We’ve touched on this in previous posts, but just to review: The Chol Chol Foundation works with the indigenous Mapuche people, especially women. The Mapuche are one of the last surviving indigenous cultures in Chile. The Chol Chol Foundation has revived the old weaving traditions and other artisanal skills to empower women and provide them with independent incomes so that families are provided for and children stay in school. The Foundation is active in eleven of the most remote and isolated parts of La Araucanía Region in Southern Chile where male chauvinism is a deep-rooted practice and violence against women is common, resulting in women’s low self-esteem, depression, and vulnerability. We’ve seen how remote some of these places are through our artisan visits (as you’ve read) – they really are isolated.

So, Nick and I are creating a fundraiser for the Foundation! Chol Chol has been receiving most of its funds through government grants every few months or so, but it’s not a sustainable way to achieve some of the things they want to accomplish. 

What will your money go towards? Lots! We plan to work with the Foundation to help prioritize how best to use all the donations gathered since they have many needs. We plan to have a portion go directly to artisans, as some were negatively impacted by forest fires last month, and there are other artisans who simply could just use some financial assistance. A majority of the funds will go towards the Foundation to support many of the ambitious projects they hope to achieve, but lack the financial means – these include offering more workshops to teach new artisans, providing assistance to artisans trying to travel to various artisan fairs, and supporting some of the projects that Nick and I have been working on (e.g., purchasing new product tags, implementing a point of sale system and paying for licenses). Lastly, the Foundation needs funds to just purchase basic materials to continue to run its operations – light bulbs, gas, office supplies, etc. We promise your money would be making a big difference to the artisans and the Foundation. Our ultimate hope is that these donations can provide the Foundation with some financial stability for years to come.

You can Venmo me (@sarahkellykennedy) or Nick (@Nicholas-Kennedy-13) if you feel so inclined to support the Chol Chol Foundation. If you have a different preferred mode of payment, just shoot us a message and we can figure it out! (We originally tried to create a fundraiser via Facebook, but it only supports U.S. based non-profits.) We appreciate any and all donations!

P.S.: If you’d like to learn more:

• A link to the Chol Chol Foundation’s website (currently working on revamping!)
• A link to a study about business models that empower women compiled by WFTO that they participated in
• A link to a gender study about women’s rights that they also participated in