About Our Missions

Mission Guatemala is centered around providing inherently fair wages paid for goods that have evolved out of an ancient craft, preserving Mayan culture and revitalizing Mayan communities. Goods of Conscience is unique from other efforts to aid through trade for three reasons:

* Weavers recieve a fair wage without competition. In poor communities, competition for work is strong, as there are many in Guatemala; unfortunately, too many for the demand. Although it is good that many are ready and willing to work, the negative aspect of this is that there is not enough local cotton to go around. Weavers will buy cheap cotton and put in the same amount of work producing an inferior product from a cheaper, foreign cotton. Social Fabric® is a combination of a man-made fiber from the United States and organic, heritage cotton from Guatemala. The careful control over yarn from in United States means assurance of a true heritage cloth made by the cotton of indigenous Mayans.

* Goods of Conscience™ sends back clothing made in the Bronx to the community where the cloth was woven.

Goods of Conscience works in concert with many people in Guatemala: The Mayan weavers, church leaders in the local community, and cotton growers. We are sponsored by the Museo Ixchel in Guatemala City. The Museo is the Guatemalan Smithsonian for the woven arts and helps to organize our weavers and oversee the production of the cloth.

Mission Bronx

Carmen sews our bags, skirts and shorts and helps with the hand-sewn tees we make with the fifth grade. She is a mother of three who lives in the neighborhood; her first grade daughter often comes by and plays while her mom finishes a project. Carmen has learned the finer points of sewing from Maria, our sample maker, and adds her own touch in the design of the bags and some of our dresses.

Goods of Conscience provides work for people like Carmen who not only need to make ends meet, but want to learn a lasting skill and to take pride in their work. They also need to have the ability to be available to their families at any given notice.

When the garment says made in the Bronx, it is strengthening the community in many ways. Proceeds from sales are used to fund projects in the neighborhood:

*We teach kids to sew and act responsibly towards the environment. We teach them that “sustainability” saves lives.

*We fund marriage counseling and provide a Focus Test - a psychological inventory of the couple - to help couples cope with differences.

*We hold seminars to promote local gardening, home organization and cooking with locally produced food.

Mission Green

Goods of Conscience produces truly sustainable garments.

It starts with heritage cotton. Our cotton comes from the last commercial cotton farm left in Guatemala run by Algodones Mayas, the work of Horatio Villavincencio, a University of Georgia trained bug specialist. The cotton is from heritage seeds that naturally resist pests and is grown on Horatio’s family plantation. He uses environmentally sound methods near the Pacific coast to create a longer staple cotton from the heritage strains.

Goods of Conscience was inspired by Fr. Greg Schaeffer, a Maryknoll missionary in San Lucas Toliman who teaches the principles of Catholic social teaching in his parish on Lake Atitlan.

In the Bronx, Goods of Conscience will offer courses on the home arts, instructing community members on ways to recycle and conserve resources, as well as offering job training courses for the underemployed in sewing and the manufacture of apparel made of organic cotton.

Presently, we offer a class for the fifth graders of Holy Family School on cutting and sewing their own tee shirts. They learn the benefits of organic cotton, as well as the process of making a shirt, which is not as simple as it may seem.

"A stitch in time saves nine" is a lesson that helps when learned literally.