First they grew coffee. When prices for the bean collapsed, many turned to growing illegal drug crops.
And now, hundreds of rural Colombians, hoping for a better living, are trying their hand at making racy lingerie for a French retail chain under a new UN-backed program.
The wispy G-strings, revealing bras and lacy garter-belts went on sale Saturday at Carrefour's 11 outlets around Colombia. The undergarments will be sold at its overseas stores in coming months.
"We are opening up a universe of new possibilities for Colombia's rural communities," said Gabriel Silva, head of the Colombian Federation of Coffee Growers, which along with the French Embassy, the UN drug office and Carrefour is promoting the alternative development project.
The project was conceived when farmers in the coffee-growing region began cultivating illicit drug crops, which swelled the ranks of Colombia's leftist rebel and right-wing paramilitary groups that control the trade.
Colombia produces 70 percent of the world's cocaine and most of the heroine sold in the US.
Alarmed by a sharp rise in poverty and crime in Colombia's coffee-rich Valle del Cauca region in the past few years, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime tried to find jobs and markets for the poor farmers.
"We searched for projects that we believed could reduce illicit activities," said Thierry Rostan, the UNODC representative in Colombia who led the effort. "What people needed were jobs and places to sell their products."
After touring Valle del Cauca, Rostan identified a local cooperative, Integrated Industries, that trained poor families in new skills. But with little access to markets, the cooperative was struggling to find enough work for its employees, and needed a major company like Carrefour to broaden its reach.
Carrefour's underwear label, Symphony, hooked up with the cooperative, which has 12 production centers scattered across the province. The centers have good access to roads, overcoming a problem that has bedeviled other development projects.
In the past, efforts to promote coca alternatives, notably fruits and vegetables, in remote areas of the country have often foundered due to a lack of infrastructure.
About 800 women, many of them heads of families, are making the lingerie. They take home about 800,000 Colombian pesos (about US$280) a month, about double the minimum wage and far more than what they could make growing coffee. They also enjoy health benefits and paid vacation.
Coca growers, in comparison, make about 200,000 Colombian pesos (about US$70), but they need to pay taxes to illegal armed groups.
This year alone, Carrefour has spent about 180 million pesos (about US$63,500) in the lingerie project. It is projected to spend another 300 million pesos (US$106,000) next year.
On Wednesday, top models paraded the products to disco beats and flashing lights along a catwalk in Bogota's French Lycee in front of business executives, politicians, lawmakers and French Ambassador Daniel Parfait.
"Violence and unemployment have brought misery to rural Colombia," Edilma Arango, of Integrated Industries, told the gathered dignitaries Wednesday. "You are bringing hope."
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
RSS