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Who is Hands with Hope? Hands with Hope (Manos con Esperanza) is a foundation created and devoted to offering hope and well-being to primarily marginalized women and their families in Medellín, Colombia. Their main focus is offering the women learning opportunities, and a safe community to master their craft. The handmade items produced by Hands with Hope give women a way to change the direction of their lives and improve their quality of life. The items are not the sole reason of their work, but rather the way in which they attract others to join them in their desire to move forward in their lives. Day by day, with passion and inspiration, the people of Hands with Hope work together to discover their potential: striving to become better people who in turn will bless others. The Hands with Hope artisans produce a variety of handmade products using colorful mola cloth. This unique fabric is representative of the philosophy and tradition of the Kuna indigenous culture, located in the Panama-Columbia border region. Each mola Panel is hand sewn and contains two or more decorative layers that are cut and sewn together using applied embroidery. This process creates beautiful, unique fabric that is then transformed into a one of a kind pair of shoes, purse or accessory. The purchase of each Hands with Hope product helps to support the lives of the artisans, preserve the culture of local Kuna Indians and contributes in carrying out the ministry purposes of the foundation. How did they get started? In 2004 the Colombia Covenant Women Ministries Board in the Antioquia Region of Medellin, Colombia, became aware of the great spiritual and material needs of the local women and their families. An idea was formed to open a small store called Hands with Hope. The store offered new and used clothing, dishes, and other articles at favorable prices from their downtown location. Yet, their vision was even larger than that - with dreams to develop a social outreach that could help improve the lives of the women and their families as well as providing resources for the women’s ministry. Over the years, Hands with Hope has blessed many people by: offering a variety of craft and artisan classes, courses on human rights and how to begin a small business, providing small loans, and offering scholarships for women to attend the Women's Ministries regional and national retreats. In August 2013, the dream to become a Foundation became a reality. Part of this dream includes raising funds to build their own Opportunity Center in Medellín where learning, creativity, production, and many more blessings abound!   browse all products by Hands with Hope