Volunteer Project

In the middle is Christian Salazar, who is the director of the Microbusiness consulting volunteer program at the Tec. On the right is my client, Jesus.

Jesus and I with some of his work on the table. That is a necklace you can see.

This necklace is a flower that is meant to be used as a gift to the most important women.

These go for 200-240 pesos or about $16-20 USD

The top one is representing Peyote

The bottom one is a bird

This is the second thickest bracelet which costs about $25 dollars. It represents or honors the God of Rain

This is the thickest bracelet that costs around $30. It has a deer head and the green diamonds are representing Peyote. They can be used as offerings for sacred places.

I have recently started my volunteer project and it's amazing. I didn't even know about the opportunity to volunteer as a consultant until I attended the new student orientation in January with CJ because when I arrived in June, they didn't have the same type of orientation. I got set up with a volunteer program called Tutoria Microempresarial, which means micro-business tutoring.

We went through training and I learned that by working with the small business person, we would help create a better business with higher sales and incomes and by doing that we would help the person improve the lives of themselves and their family. We would also be benefitting the community by creating better jobs. Most of the microempresarios (micro-business people) had not completed high school education and as a result did not have a wealth of business knowledge. That's where we came in (I keep saying we because I believe there are about 40 students at the Tec who are participating in this program), using our knowledge gained at the Tec to help the community only a few blocks away from the Tec but a world away from the expensive, private, well-respected Instituto Tecnologico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey.

My client, Jesus, is in his 60's and didn't graduate from high school. He is from the indigenous tribe Huichol that is primarily in the state of Jalisco, which is in the southern part of Mexico. He has 54 years of experience creating Huichol artisan handicrafts, but he prefers the term art. He and his team creates designs in sizes that range from 60 cm by 60 cm to 15 cm by 15 cm. They require an incredible amount of work because it is all bead work and every design represents something. Part of the value added by Jesus to his art is a card that he signs which explains every aspect of the work. Jesus also makes bracelets, necklaces, jaguar heads and masks out of small beads in intricate and beautiful designs that also have a meaning.

His website was created by another student volunteer about a year ago. On the site you can see Jesus and most of his art. I will be working on translating it to English at some point. Here is the link: http://www.quintopuntocardinal.com.mx/

It is interesting working with Jesus because we are both coming across a culture to meet in the middle. I am an American speaking my second language and he is Huichol speaking his second language as well. Neither of us are living in our home town. Believe it or not, we communicate quite well and I more than hold my own in communicating in Spanish.

As for our goals for my consulting role, we are trying to connect his products to another country or other countries. I am looking at artisan websites that will allow Jesus to sell his products to people all over the world. Also through a Rotary meeting, I met someone who knows someone, more details to come.

So far I have created a few deliverables for Jesus including a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (or FODA in Spanish, Fortalezas, Oportunidades, Debilidades, y Amenazas)), an analysis of the four P (product, price, place, promotion or cuatro p in Spanish, producto, precio, plaza, y promocion, how convenient still 4 P), and a list of definitions of several business terms that he might not have ever heard of such as target markets and positioning.

Overall, I would say that this volunteer program has been a tremendous opportunity and a lot of fun. It is a challenge to try and figure out how I can help Jesus but I am working hard and being creative. It makes me so happy to be supporting the Rotary cause of Service Above Self even if I am just helping one person. I am so grateful and I feel so lucky to be here in Monterrey, so it's nice to give back.