About Us
Background
AlterNatives endeavors to create a liberating economy that supports the health, wealth and opportunity for indigenous and marginalized women and foster social entrepreneurship.
We work to harness the liberating power of the market to break centuries old cycles of oppression and dependency in some of the world’s most marginalized corners.
Women in the developing world face a triple discrimination. First, for being born a women in male dominated societies, second for being born a person of color in a discriminatory world and third, for being born poor in a time when this is seen as a personal vice rather than a social ill.
In many indigenous communities, women have been the traditional entrepreneurs. For centuries it has been the women who have produced consumer items and distributed them through village markets or little shops run out of the home. Women have had an empowered role that offered them control over their labor and resources.
Today, women in even the most remote areas are facing direct competition with well financed international corporations who are distributing machine made products in well organized and highly efficient operations. An example of this is the women of Guatemala who at one time could feed their families producing low fire ceramic plates. With a Wal-Mart across the border, the women have been displaced by cheaper plastic plates made in Asia.
The effects of this “capital revolution” are the loss of power, prestige and real income for developing world producers and retailers around the world. Women are losing their roles as empowered actors in the local economy to being low wage workers in the global economy. Since it is women who invest their money on education and the welfare of their families, this is having devastating effects on long term development in many rural communities.
Some of the problems faced by developing world artisans from obtaining benefits from the global economy are:
- 1. Lack of access to capital
- 2. Lack of knowledge of international markets
- 3. Legal prohibitions from travel
- 4. Lack of political power to defend economic interest
- 5. Lack of business knowledge to compete in complex international markets
There are some aspects of indigenous culture that no one wants to sacrifice to meet the demanding needs of international market conditions. For example, indigenous communities place a high value on family life and participation in village activities. The town festival is an example of such traditions. The Western model of social organization that humans exist to work is not a healthy or positive world view. Furthermore, the notion that environmental degradation is a needed sacrifice for human development is not a sustainable practice.
AlterNatives endeavors to resolve these issues and create alternative models of business organization based on native Cosmo vision. We are working to develop a capital fund to provide resources to both producers and NGO’s working to empower indigenous entrepreneurs to make the transition to the global market place. We conduct real life marketing studies to develop new products and discover profitable distribution methods.
We hire local women with business experience to mentor women who are struggling to adapt. We have found that often times women have the figurative gold mine right under their noses, they just lack and understanding of how to exploit it. We organize and educate North Americans about the political issues that adversely affect the ability of women around the world from obtaining free and fair access to the benefits of the global economy.