WHO WE ARE
What is Kuchub'al?
Board of Directors Kuchub'al is an organized effort of small organized producers in the southwestern region of Guatemala. We look for a way to construct a more human economy, from our solidarity, our mutual support and our search for fair benefits.

Kuchub'al is searching for life and development for our families and communities, without any monopole that take advantage and benefits on the needs of others.

Kuchub'al means a life effort in the practice of; the economy, Christian values

Board of Directors of Kuchub'al  
and the cultures of our peoples that invite us to love and serve, to take care of each other, to look after each other and harmonize with the nature as a common patrimony of humanity for all generations.

Kuchub'al thinks about how to be a hope for the poor and an announcement that a New World is really possible. It is already present in our experiences of solidarity, as a concrete reality and as small seed of an every time better world.

The origin of the Word Kuchub´al

Kuchub'al is a word of Mayan Kiché origin. In the recent years it has been used to name the spontaneous organization of groups of friends, neighbors and coworkers, who agree to contribute periodically a quota of money (every second week or monthly), the sums of each period is delivered in an occasion and of rotary form to every participant. This way it turns into a loan without interests, which helps persons and families to solve emergency situations and it is also constituted as a form of saving.

This dynamics of mutual help between the poor, is known in other places and cultures as " group ", " shift ", etc. Nevertheless, in case of the Mayas people in Guatemala, this strategy of mutual and united support, collaborates to very diverse forms such as support in the construction of the housings, in the agricultural works, in the community works, in the festivities, etc.

This is the sense that we have wanted to gather and to re-live on having taken the word Kuchub'al as the name that identifies our efforts to join us and to connect us in a common project.
The nature of Kuchub'al
Kuchub'al To be a regional network that constructs and exchange relationships and fair national, international and united trade for small groups of producers and consumers in the search of sustainable forms and community that allows a worthy life. It is an entity character as a trade union, created to look over the interests of these small groups of producers and the consumers.

Principles of Kuchub'al

  • We live in a liberating faith that incites commitment and mysticism with our people. We are all equal before God.
  • We practice fair, supportive marketing. In commercialization, no harm should be done.
  • We practice and we demand transparency and honesty. We should make things well and live with dignity.
  • We assure that tactful actions are a right. The common good should prevail over private interests.
  • We walk with peoples’ active participation. We should make things together, in a responsible way, to achieve better results.
  • We promote equality of gender, ethnicity, and age. Women have the same rights as men. Our strength is in our diversity.
  • We practice non-violence. There are other forms of resolving conflicts.
  • We respect and value our cultural roots and nature. To maintain our identity we should be faithful to our roots. The survival of human beings and all other beings is dependent on respect for nature.
  • We promote production and consumption of natural and organic products. We should care for our health, without losing sight of the needs of others.