(image courtesy of Ruth DeGolia)

For Ruth DeGolia, her collegiate experience provided her with a global education that would fuel a boundless passion and create a global impact much larger than she could have ever imagined.

Feeling compelled to help those less fortunate, Ruth, (then) an undergraduate at Yale University, spent a total of 9 months in rural Guatemala during school breaks, helping socio-economically disadvantaged women's cooperatives through the Association of Rural Indigenous Communities in Guatemala.

Avidly interested in Latin America from an early age, and likewise a fluent Spanish speaker, Ruth began to build close relationships with the women in the coastal village of San Alfonso. She learned more about their personal plights -- the struggles and brutality they had witnessed and experienced. Many had lost their husbands to war, others had experienced domestic violence, most had previously long been in exile from Guatemala's brutal civil war in the 1980s -- and yet despite their circumstances, they all shared a heroic commonality -- the desire to earn their own money, to provide for their own families, to survive against all odds.

Ruth started a variety of projects to help support the women of the rural communities, and helped fundraise for local NGOs. She soon realized that, while temporarily helpful, this type of support did not provide long-term sustainability.

The women were artists -- possessing an ability to create stunningly beautiful beaded and woven traditional handicrafts. Yet the ability to use their talents for financial profit was limited by lackluster tourism and a struggling economy.

Ruth and Benita (Newsweek image)

Determined to link the co-ops to the U.S. market somehow, on their return home the two teens filled their suitcases with the women's handicrafts -- their exquisite beaded bags and necklaces. Back at Yale, they held informal "fair trade crafts sales," and earned $5000 in revenue for the 6 women's cooperatives in Guatemala. Selling at a 300% markup, the sales provided 30 co-op members with a month's fair wage employment each, and even enough left over to send 10 of their daughters to school for a year.

Realizing the incredible potential of a linked global market for changing the lives of the Guatemalan women, they created a marketing plan to include 15 Guatemalan women's co-ops. With a startup grant from the Echoing Green Foundation, soon Ruth and Benita were back in Guatemala, laying the basis for a nonprofit initiative called Mercado Global (Mercado means "market").

Mercado Global "seeks to bring the benefits of globalization to the poor communities that until now have seen only the downside, in the collapse of prices for their locally grown crops."

Some of the cooperatives are in incredibly remote villages, where only indigenous languages are spoken. There, co-op members hand-weave textiles on looms, in addition to making hand-painted jewelry and ceramics; this, in addition to the beaded handicrafts of other co-ops. In November of 2004 Mercado Global launched its first catalog bringing products from the co-ops to U.S. consumers and stores. In its first year alone, sales provided fair wages to nearly 200 co-op members, and sent over 100 of their children to school for a year.

Mercado Global's revenues have expanded exponentially since, and likewise, the initiative continues to grow. Led by Ruth's vision and leadership, Mercado Global has already expanded into southern Mexico, and is in the process of expanding into Ecuador. They are also beginning to sell products for African groups through a differently-structured e-commerce program.

What makes Mercado Global so unique is that ALL profits go to partner communities, where the artisans, themselves, decide how they want the money spent, and where they want additional revenue to go. Most choose to fund scholarships, thereby investing in their community's long-term development by allowing them to invest in their children's education. For these women, the majority of whom cannot read nor write, this is perhaps the greatest gift of all.