This lovely basket was handcrafted with native pine needles, by Pinos Fabretinos, a women's business initiative associated with the organization Familia Padre Fabretto, whose mission is to break the cycle of poverty in Nicaragua through sustainable employment.

Pinos Fabretinos is a cooperative of over fifty women in San Jose de Cusmapa, Nicaragua. These women, all mothers and many single, make baskets in the cooperative to help themselves support their families. This remote and rural area in the second poorest country in our hemisphere, is the most poverty-ridden area of the country. There are very few ways to make a living and unemployment is well over fifty percent. As in most parts of the developing world, in Nicaragua the women bear the heaviest burden of poverty. Pinos Fabretinos helps to alleviate some of this burden.

This basket was purchased directly from Pinos Fabretinos at a fair price. All profits made from the sale of their baskets are used to purchase children's books for a slowly growing library in San Jose de Cusmapa.