Maquita (MCCH)

MCCH (Maquita Chuchunchic Comercializando Como Hermanos), meaning "Let us join hands and do business as brothers" in Quechua and Spanish languages, is an Ecuadorian cooperative marketing NGO. MCCH works with craft groups scattered around the country, helping them with production, design and marketing. For many artisans, craft income supplements meager agricultural earnings. In addition to handicraft sales, MCCH works with farm collectives exporting fair trade cocoa, with ecotourism and with women’s cooperatives. MCCH was begun in 1985 by a group of church communities in response to rising poverty and inflation in Ecuador. Ten Thousand Villages has purchased products from MCCH since 1995.