Pilli Luna had an idea. She made it happen and today it supports hundreds of Central Americans who live on the coasts. She wanted to be like her mother, who sewed clothes and according to her account, she did it very well. That was how she made a pair of shoes with the fabric of jeans.
Its tailoring and design was so good that it received an order for 2,500 children’s pairs. That’s when she started recycling clothes with which she dressed 3,500 vulnerable children.
He did not stop there and thought of an idea that today he wants to bring to all women in the Latin American and Caribbean region: The transformation of fish skin, with which he currently has an important project to create eye-catching accessories and shoes. colors that come from fruits, roots and trees (plants). Nothing artificial or harmful to the environment, and therefore it is 100% sustainable.
The project began in La Mosquitia, in Honduras, a place that Pilli says is very difficult to access and, moreover, dangerous.
To start, it had the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). He also thought of a material made from the bark of a tree. The IDB “listened to her,” she said, and together with an IDB staff they made the trip to La Mosquitia and became interested in children’s shoes in Latin America.
She remembers that by the year 2020 she did not know how to pay the salaries of the people who worked on the project with her. But after a year and a half it was already among the five important projects.
“Discipline is much better than talent,” he says, although he acknowledges that you have to have a structure to move forward and that is why he later won the sponsorship of the Mastercard company at INCAE in Costa Rica.
“You have to be thankful and give credit”, getting to La Mosquitia and later to INCAE, in Costa Rica, was the basis for 220 women to find work, and for them to train 180 in Honduras and 68 in Costa Rica, but most importantly that is impacting 840 families in that region.
For Pilli, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, it was what led her to create that space with the fish skin material and thereby give the opportunity to women who were in a stage of continuing or staying in a relationship and need school uniforms, medicine and nutritious food for their children, but they had no income.
“I would like to take this to all places, to all coasts of Latin America and the Caribbean.” Creating shoes has a future”, says the creator of shoes, handbags and other accessories made from fish skin. She works with several international organizations and hence her confidence that it will reach more women, provided someone finances the training and provides the supplies and tools for them to create their own business.
She trains them and becomes her client as long as the products have the quality that she teaches them.
As an initial fund, the projects require the support of NGO contributors, NGOs and the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (CABEI), which can also help to start production and pay for training and its connection with the communities. in a commercial action.
He enthusiastically affirms that the products have a global market. They are exported to the United States, Europe and Canada, Central America and are also sold in Latin America.
Every year 3.1 tonnes of fish skin is lost worldwide, which is a by-product of filleting fish, it revealed.
What has always been done is that when filleting the fish, the fishermen threw away the skins or used them as bait for fishing.
To color the skin that looks transparent, Pilli uses fruits and plants that he does not say which ones because he has them patented to transform the skin.
In addition to shoes and accessories, Pilli sells raw materials used in buildings, furniture, and others.
Motivation
Her main motivation was to contribute to the world “a little bit of what one has inside”, to try to raise women to understand that she is capable of getting ahead, that she has the resources and tools and that they have support.
In his opinion, to create this type of material, he feels that everything came from a divine inspiration from God, because he is clear that he has not invented “hot water”, since the technique he uses dates from 300 years before Christ, and has been used in Asia.
His project consists, he says, of having developed a formula, creating a model oriented to impact fishing communities and women fishers.
The Innovation Forum 2022 of Mastercard Latin America and the Caribbean
The Fontaineblue hotel was the setting where some 2,100 people gathered, practically double the number of the previous edition, at the 2022 Innovation Forum of Mastercard Latin America and the Caribbean, an activity in which advances in Artificial Intelligence, the metaverse , “blockhain”, cybersecurity, cryptocurrencies, metaverse, open banking, fintech and the leadership of women entrepreneurs.
“Converge” was the motto of the forum, which began this Tuesday with the participation of women leaders. There was also a panel of successful business ventures and various presentations by experts in platforms, cryptocurrencies, and other digital media. “New technologies such as the metaverse, blockchain, and artificial intelligence are transforming the way we relate to and understand the future of money and security,” the company says in a statement posted on its website.
It is about discussing how innovation is driving the new economy, in this eleventh edition of the Innovation Forum of Mastercard Latin America and the Caribbean and an opportunity for customers, banks, merchants, fintechs, exchanges, to share ideas and their vision on the future of trade, he indicates.
Carlo Enrico, president of Mastercard for Latin America and the Caribbean, opened the forum with the presentation “Intersection of technology, business and the human-centered future.”