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Although selling Couro Ecológico’s purses online is a new step for CEN, it’s only one of many in our ongoing attempt to help the communities we serve become more self reliant. Couro Ecológico (“Ecological leather” in English) was founded in 1997 in Maguary, Brazil as a worker-owned association that makes eco-friendly purses from locally-produced, sustainably harvested natural rubber latex. Since then, the association has now grown to over 15 workers--men and women--in an area with extremely few employment and economic options. Enterprises such as Couro Ecológica are very important, as they serve as successful models for other community members and neighboring communities.
 CEN began working with Arimar Fietosa, one of the association’s founders and a key visionary, as part of our Amazon Prototype Project starting in early 2005. We recognized Arimar’s vision and drive to be a unique asset for the community and our goal was to support his work so that he could become an entrepreneurial role model for the entire region. During the Prototype Project, we primarily focused our efforts on advising him on US market dynamics, how to reach more customers through the internet and on marketing efforts in general. Last August,, we organized a visit by a group of MBA students from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania to travel to Maguary to evaluate Couro Ecológico and provide feedback on how to improve their business (read more about this visit). We based many of our activities this year on the team's findings.
Early this year, Ney Fietosa, Arimar’s brother and current Director of Couro Ecológico, became a participant in the phase 1 pilot for our cCLEAR program. Because Couro Ecológica is an established business, this means Ney’s objectives and needs are more complex than most phase 1 cCLEAR participants. Therefore, our approach with Ney and Couro Ecológico is a bit different. Although our primary focus within phase 1 of the cCLEAR program is to help individuals develop basic skills and mindsets, it’s impossible to completely isolate Ney’s needs from the association’s needs. While many of our activities are focused on building Ney’s basic skills, we also need to focus on overcoming some of the wider association’s needs in the process. Furthermore, the association is currently facing some tough challenges with declining orders and organizational flux, so they urgently need to sell more bags to keep the association from disintegrating. Therefore, in addition to activities focused on building Ney’s critical thinking and organizational skills, we are also helping Ney build the internal capabilities of the association. Please read more about our specific activities with Ney here
In addition to selling their purses directly through our online store, we’ve been contacting retailers located mostly in the Seattle area about carrying the purses. We must walk a fine line between expanding markets without over-committing the factory to sales which it might not be able to deliver in a timely fashion, due to an unproven production capacity, logistics and other issues. For this reason, we’re starting small and relying heavily upon the expertise of our field technician, Marcos Abreu. Marcos has worked with the association over several years and will communicate closely with the factory regarding order fulfillment. Marcos is also playing a limited role as an organizational consultant by advising and mentoring Ney and the other members of the organization to build their marketing capability and to implement changes in their organizational abilities in order to improve quality control, production and order management.
This summer, guests with the Unveiling the Amazon trip will also participate in carrying out some of our skill building activities. Learn more about the trip and its impact on CEN's cClear participants.
This is a new, exciting direction for CEN. We encourage you to visit the store and let your colleagues, friends and family know about Couro Ecologico’s unique products. Do your part in supporting fair trade around the world!
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