Imagine that you are a single mother with no washing machine or dryer, no refrigerator or stove, no transportation of your own, no processed super-market foods available, no day-care or baby-sitters, no disposable diapers or formula, and a salary of about $1.50 per day, trying to sell crafts in a foreign language. These are the conditions single mothers face in San Pablito, a Ñañhu community in the Northern Sierra of Mexico.

The 1999 census showed that some 30% of women of child-bearing age in San Pablito were single mothers. Separations, emigration, and deaths have left an extremely high number of women in this most difficult situation. Bringing up children without the help of a spouse means that these ladies must earn some money through their beadwork and embroidery as well as attend to their children.

The single mothers' group A.M.I.G.A. has formed to help these ladies solve their two main problems: feeding their children and getting them through school. The first is an extremely grave concern, since almost all of the children in San Pablito that are listed as 3rd degree malnutrition cases come from single-mother homes. Part of the problem in getting the children properly fed is the number of hours the mother needs to work in order to buy food. This leaves her with no time to go to the market, collect firewood, grind corn and shape tortillas, boil water, cook beans, wash dishes etc.

The solution the single mothers identified and chose to work on was to find a better market for their goods.