Who We Are

We, the craftswomen, are the owners of Manos del Uruguay, and we are part of a non-profit Association, the objective of which is to generate work for rural women, allowing us to stay in our towns, earn our living and develop ourselves as human beings.

 

Manos del Uruguay is an organization made up of Cooperatives of craft manufacturing and a Service Center, and its the main objectives are:

 

  • To generate and develop work sources for women in the interior of the country
  • Provide economic, social and cultural opportunities to all its members.
  • Value handicrafts and the work of artisans.

 

Manos del Uruguay is run by a Managing Committee made up of representatives of the Cooperatives and representatives of the Adhering Members, who are people who voluntarily cooperate with the organization.

 

The members of the Managing Committee change every two years, and as of 1988, the Cooperative Representatives have represented the majority of the Managing Committee:  out of its seven members, four of them are craftswomen.

 

We are grouped in 13 cooperatives that bring together 250 craftswomen distributed in 19 localities in the interior of the country.  Cooperatives have their central offices in cities and towns of the Interior of the country, and, in addition, there are groups of craftswomen operating in different localities, more or less far away. Meanwhile the Service Center is located in Montevideo, and 90 employees approximately work there, to provide the Cooperatives with different services such as products design, supply of materials and raw materials, technical training, manufacturing and tool maintenance, sale of production, financing, advising and training for the cooperatives directors, and, among others, advising for those who perform administrative functions.

 

Manos del Uruguay is already more than 40 years old, and many of those pioneer craftswomen who started the hard work of its creation, believing in something that was, at that time,  more of an illusion than of a reality, have already retired.

 

Those heroic times when small independent groups of women met to spin fleece with spinning wheels, in isolated and faraway places, have been left behind.  They gave way to new times, in which the same group of artisans, living in faraway places, are organized in cooperatives, work using modern technology and obtain high-quality products, without losing the prized magic of handicrafts. Women with only a few years of primary school, without any other prospects in life than getting married and having children, became the businesswomen who run Manos del Uruguay.

 

A few years ago nobody could have ever imagined what that initial idea, arisen from the need to palliate the difficult situation of countryside women, would finally become.  Manos del Uruguay is a collective construction, to which the founders, the artisans, the adhering members, the employees of the Service Center, and many volunteers have contributed their creativity, work and enthusiasm throughout these years.

  

 

The cooperatives and their locations


CAPAYQUE - Paysandú Quebracho - (department of PAYSANDÚ)

CAPALGUI - Guichon Algorta - (department of PAYSANDÚ)

CAS Jósé Enrique Rodó- Egaña - (department of SORIANO)

CARF - Fraile Muerto - (department of CERRO LARGO)

CAME Melo - (department of CERRO LARGO)

CAUVA - Río Branco Dragón - (department of CERRO LARGO)

COTAM - Tambores Tacuarembó - (department of TACUAREMBO)

CADEF Florida - (department of FLORIDA)

CAFLODUR - Sarandí Grande - (department of FLORIDA)

COARMO Molles - (department of DURAZNO)

CATFRAY - Fray Marcos - Totoral del Sauce - (department of FLORIDA)

TRINIDAD Trinidad - (department of FLORES)

SAN JOSE - San José - (department of SAN JOSÉ)