Our Social Projects
For each Artesanico bag, €1 is given to our partner UMSTANDA (UF-AFCE) to realize social and ethical projects in Colombia.
Juan Carlos Duputel, Daisy Reboul and Dayana Bonilla created this association in 2018. Its goal is to support Colombian native communities and to highlight Colombian biodiversity. It is the only (1901) association that has the purpose to show the world about Colombia’s natural and human resources with the aim to protect them.
When she created her first company in Colombia, Dayana heard about the UMSTANDA association in Bogota that organized great ecofriendly tracks in some uncommon places not far from the capital. Since then, UMSTANDA and ourselves have been dedicated to help those who need it most. We join forces to collaborate on environmental and ethical projects.
UMSTANDA’s current first project is to contribute to education in a natural reserve in the Mesa region of Colombia. It is located 80 km from Bogota and accommodates a village with 150 inhabitants. This project is called « Money for biodiversity ». UMSTANDA is raising funds in order to build a library for the village, in partnership with La monnaie de Paris.
This is just the beginning!
We will have other projects coming up, such as digging new wells in the Guarija desert, to create better access to the water supply for the Wayuu tribes. Water supply is indeed a daily challenge in this region. The 300 000 Wayuu people are living on a 15, 3 km2 desert where there is only few wells, poorly maintained and sometimes not working at all. Dryness impoverishes the Guarija’s land and its people, which is obviously increasing through climate change. The Guarija region has suffered severely under extreme dry conditions during the last 8 years causing over 5000 children’s deaths. This critical situation also accelerates migration flows to large cities, which is harmful for the endurance of the Wayuu culture in the long run. Through new projects, we aim to make a difference to preserve their culture, natural habitat and ancestral expertise.
