Patricia Hidalgo

Fundación Solidaridad is a nonprofit with a vision of overcoming poverty in Chile through providing dignity through work and training. The organization was established in the late 1970s by Chilean Bishops to help market handcrafts and offer support to the families of some of the thousands of political prisoners arrested by the Chilean army during the Pinochet dictatorship. Today, Fundación Solidaridad works with women’s groups, youth, indigenous people, people with learning difficulties, and family enterprises with limited resources. Their work provides over 500 artisans with ways to improve their quality of life by producing handicrafts.

Women in the marginalized neighborhoods of Chile’s capitol gather to support each other and to sew and appliqué textile products like arpilleras, dolls, and clerical stoles.  In addition to textiles, Fundación works with artisans who produce handcrafts using traditional Chilean raw materials like combarbalite stone, lapis lazuli, wood, and recycled paper. SERRV has worked with Fundación Solidaridad since 1992.