Pulseras have come to PC!
We at Platte County High School believe that our community is an important core of our lives, and thus we strive for unity every day. Sometimes, though, we forget about all the other communities in the world. Students at PCHS have taken on the Pulsera Project to empower both our global communities and our local ones. After all, is there any better way to bring people closer than banding together and making a difference in another person's life?
About
You may be asking, "What is the Pulsera Project?"
The Pulsera Project is a non-profit organization that partners with artists in Nicaragua and Guatemala to provide for the artists' communities through the selling of pulseras that are hand-woven by the artists.
The Pulsera Project has partnered with nearly 200 artists since 2009. These artists are given a valuable salary through their pulseras, something that is not attainable for the majority of their country. Not only are the artists supported by the Pulsera Project, but so are their families. The artists' families are given health benefits, scholarships for school, and the artists' communities are given housing funds.
The provided video (4 minutes) gives an insightful explanation to the Pulsera Project.
The Artists
The Pulsera Project partners with both independent artists and artist conglomerates. Many of the partners of the Pulsera Project were unable to find jobs or the jobs that they were able to find were unstable (the average length of a job in Nicaragua is two months). Nicaragua also has an underemployment rate of 42.6%, meaning that 42.6% of all employed people in Nicaragua do not receive a salary that is sufficient to take care of themself or their family. On top of this, countries directly surrounding Nicaragua and Guatemala often do not follow fair trade laws, making the bettering of their economies almost impossible due to no new trade coming in.
Although, with the Pulsera Project, the salaries given to the artists have helped them raise their economic status along with feeling emotionally better about their futures.
The Impacts
Since 2009, the Pulsera Project has raised more than $5,000,000 along with greatly improving the quality of life of the artists and their families. These two videos showcase just a few of the multiple impacts the Pulsera Project has had on these communities.
A Day in the Life
"A Day in the Life" follows the family of a young girl named Darling. Darling is a first-generation school student in her family, and she attends a school called Ecsuela Nueva Vida. Escuela Nueva Vida is one of the many schools to have received donations from the Pulsera Project so that the school would be able to pay for learning materials and pay the teachers normal salaries.
The Pulsera Project Housing Program
"The Pulsera Project Housing Program" discusses the importance of owning a house in Nicaraguan culture, the stability it brings, and the fact that many families are unable to own their own home. The video does an amazing job of bringing Nicaraguan culture into the spotlight by following a family who has received the opportunity to build their own house through the salary provided by the Pulsera Project.
For more in-depth information about all of the Pulsera Project's social impacts, click