Beyond the Fiber
How NATIVARegen™ social programs support rural communities
For Sonia Bude, wool has always been part of her life.
Born and raised on her family’s farm in Vichadero, Nothern Uruguay, she grew up surrounded by sheep and learnt to knit with her grandmother at an early age. As she shares with us on an interview over on Instagram, what began as a childhood hobby, gradually became something deeper: a form of therapy and a way to channel her energy. A celebration of the present moment through craft.
Recently, knitting also became a common thread connecting her with other women. Through our social programs, Sonia shares her craft with a group of women who come together to knit, weave, learn and support one another. Their gatherings are part of our social initiatives around regenerative farms in Uruguay. Each workshop is both a training space and a place of belonging.
Through our NATIVARegen™ Social Programs, we help brands design and implement initiatives that amplify their fiber supply chains, extending a positive impact onto the communities around their farms. Each program is developed with partner organizations around the needs, knowledge and opportunities of each local community. Through this place based approach, NATIVA™ looks after program design, implementation., monitoring and communication, offering brands a way to complement responsible fiber sourcing with a social impact program that is directly connected to the origin of their materials.
We believe there is more to natural fibers than performance or traceability. Each thread carries the stories of entire communities living close to the land.
The NATIVARegen™ Social Program “Women in Wool”, implemented in rural communities around the North of Uruguay, demonstrates how craftsmanship can preserve cultural legacy, create opportunities for women and bring a sense of belonging to rural communities.
The program has already held several workshops where artisans have travelled miles to meet and connect. These spaces offer a chance for giving and receiving knowledge, training, support, ideas, tools, mentorship, and time. It is heartwarming to witness women share the passion and love for their craft with one another, and inspiring to see the eldest passing down their knowledge to the youngest. A testament to collaboration as a tool to strengthen heritage, sediment culture, and provide opportunities for future generations.
About Women in Wool
Sonia takes part of “Women in Wool”, a social program designed to support rural women with experience in knitting and other textile crafts. The program pairs their existing craftsmanship with entrepreneurial training, up-skilling participants to grow their personal projects. Training areas include costing and pricing, stock management, product development, branding and social media. The women have applied these frameworks onto a collaborative project that puts theory into practice. Together, they developed two wool kits designed for babies and children in rural Uruguay.
The first, “Kit Nacer” (Newborn Kit) is a welcoming set featuring a wool blanket, a handmade rag doll and a bib that have been distributed to families through hospitals in the Uruguayan countryside.
The second, “Siento Lana” (I Feel Wool), is an educational sensory kit that invites children to explore creativity and emotions. It includes a short story, wool balls that can be transformed into sheep and a card game that explores emotional expression. The kit has been used in rural schools across Uruguay as a resource to help children recognize, express and talk about their emotions while discovering the sensory and creative qualities of wool.
Our Social Programs are developed in partnership with participating brands. The long term commitment from brands who believe in a better way of doing is paramount to creating lasting, tangible impact to the lives of rural communities around natural fibers.
Would you like to learn more about our Social Programs, or explore ways in which we could build something meaningful together? Get in touch with our team.
