Malinalco's master artisans have partnered with One World Projects, a U.S. fair-trade import company, offering their finest products in support of the Corner Institute's work to create local jobs and keep our migrants' children in school.

Since 2004 the Corner Institute has been providing crisis support for migrants' families, including free calls to the U.S., bilingual assistance in locating needed services when migrant relatives are lost or hurt, and temporary subsidies and assistance finding employment for families suddenly deprived of income when a migrant relative is lost or incapacitated.

In the summer of 2006 we began a new phase of our work, developing income-generating projects designed to provide training and alternative employment opportunities for area youths who might otherwise feel their only real economic option to lie in making the dangerous journey to seek work in the United States. Our Malinalco Migrants' Eagles workshop, held in collaboration with area schools, served to develop our first product and offer training to both experienced and apprentice woodcarvers. When Malinalco's master weavers joined our master woodcarvers in designing the finest hand-crafted products for export, we were able to start offering women interested in learning how to do fine embroidery a way to earn money at home (an option that has been particularly popular with those raising young children).

2007 was a year of major developments for the Corner Institute, opening of our first office, building our team to include a full-time office staff, initiating special programs for migrants’ children in local secondary schools, and laying the groundwork for developing our team’s administrative and sales capacities while our artisans perfected their products and developed their capacity for production. In 2008 we launched our first export experience, through One World Projects' on-line catalogue service. 2009 has brought a first-ever joint production project combining the work of a Malinalco master carpenter with our own master woodcarvers’s exquisite work to produce a truly lovely hand-carved desk frame that has been selling well locally and will soon be offered for export.

Come back soon for updates about new products in development.

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