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Dignity
Lucio Malhue is a potter in his brother Orlando’s workshop in Pomaire, Chile. Pomaire is famous throughout Chile for its clay pottery made from the distinctive dark brown clay dug from the surrounding hills. The town is full of small pottery workshops like Orlando Malhue’s. However, in the past few years Pomaire pottery has been slowly replaced by less expensive plastic and factory produced products leaving many workshops without enough work to keep all the potters employed. This now makes it doubly hard for people like Lucio to find employment since he is slightly disabled mentally.
Comparte (means share in English), the nonprofit handicraft organization Ten Thousand Villages works with in Chile, emphasizes that it is important to find markets for workshops like the Malhue workshop since they provide some of the very few opportunities for disabled people like Lucio to work and lead a productive life. Lucio’s work gives him self-confidence and satisfaction. The beautiful work he is able to do with his hands gives him dignity which he might not otherwise have.
Ten Thousand Villages provides vital, fair income to artisans like Lucio Malhue by marketing their handicrafts and telling their stories in North America. Your purchase makes a difference and brings dignity to artisans around the world.
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