It also provides a platform of products and services that dramatically impact their quality of life - Wakami Villages!! Communities of the Earth is an NGO that links rural communities to national and international markets. It is part of the Saqil Group, together with Kiej de los Bosques. As a system, these two organizations share a collective dream and are able to transform cycles of poverty into
cycles of prosperity. Kiej de los Bosques is a social company, that through its brand Wakami, designs, develops and exports products to over 15 countries, made by rural companies. It works closely with Communities of the Earth, becoming the first client of the businesses Communities of the Earth incubates. Communities of the Earth incubates rural companies, links them to value chains, especially the Wakami Export Value chain, and provides a platform where the rural companies become agents of change in their families, their homes and their villages. Communities of the Earth has two methodologies:
The Inclusive Business Methodology and the Wakami Village Methodology. With the inclusive business methodology, groups of rural people, mostly women, become formal business linked to a value chain, allowing them to have a source of income and save money. By working in alliance with the Wakami Value Chain, the first income starts by the 4th month that the incubation process begins. The Wakami Village Methodology is a platform of product s and services that people with a source of income can access to dramatically improve their lives (ilters, stoves, rain water collecting units, etc.) and can become agents of change in their communities and countries, by participating in joint activities that transform places (recreational parks, waste management programs, local decision making spaces). Communities of the Earth has not only incubated rural companies in Guatemala, but it also has done it in Mexico, in Alliance with UNF at the Sian Kaan World Heritage Site, and currently, in Panama, in alliance with Chemonics/USAID . Communities of the Earth has participated in creating different value chains. The two most important ones being:
The Jocotan Fiber Chain, which connected 300 women from 8 communities in Jocotan (where a famine was declared) to a rum company that uses a fiber packaging. Women, with the source of income, started feeding and educating their children, saving money, and forming a loan and savings cooperative, dramatically transforming their communities. The Wakami Value Chain, in alliance with Kiej de los Bosques, which is currently exporting fashion accessories to 15 countries under the brand Wakami. Wakami is a brand that inspires people to dream, create change and enjoy life through fashion accessories. It is currently exporting the production of 18 rural companies, comprised of 300 people, mostly women, to the world. 17 companies are located in Guatemala and 1 in Panama, in the Darien Gap. They have all been incubated by Communities of the Earth. What is important is that the tools developed by Communities of the Earth have shown to be repplicable, and useful in other parts of the world where the need to generate income is a first step in transforming cycles of poverty into cycles of prosperity!!
