Alcides + Adriana
They learned to repurpose palm trees to support their family.
Alcides lives near the second-largest swamp in Colombia. He used to be a fisherman but with illegal mining, the waters got more and more contaminated and contained less and less fish. When ‘CorpoAyapel’ started giving classes on how to make handicrafts from local palm trees, Alcides and his wife, Adriana, decided to participate. He recalls that the learning process wasn’t easy:
“Sometimes, I had to skip classes as someone from the family had to take care of the food. Sometimes we didn’t have food at all, but luckily the children could eat at school.”
Now, with income from selling their handicrafts, Alcides and Adriana don’t worry as much about the future. They moved to a beautiful brick house with a workshop area in the patio, and they are dreaming even bigger for the future:
“Everything we have comes from handicrafts. My wife and I are a perfect team. We are already making goods for the Christmas handicraft fair in Bogota, and my daughter is planning to study business management next year.”
Alcides doesn’t remember the last time he went fishing. Coincidentally, his fish-shaped weaved artwork is his most popular.
Learn more about ‘CorpoAyapel’, a GlobalGiving partner.
— Story and photo by Viktorija Noreikaite of the GlobalGiving Field Program
