Clockwise from top left, graduate student Elizabeth Wood, senior Elvy Choy, graduate student Lauren McKnew-Bell, senior Bethany Shackelford, senior Mindee Shrull and professor Liliana Deck pose with one of the bags women in Colombia made for the non-governmental organization Paz y Bien (Peace and Wellness). — Photo by Renee Davies

Paz y Bien, which translates as Peace and Wellness, is an organization that provides a multitude of services to residents of the Aguablanca neighborhood of Cali, Colombia, including job training, housing, childcare and medical services among others.

The students directed their efforts to marketing canvas grocery bags produced in Colombia by people receiving Paz y Bien’s services. The bags have the double benefit of providing employment and spreading awareness about the program, said Western senior Bethany Shackelford, a member of the group working with Paz y Bien.

“It’s like a one-stop shop for everything they need,” Shackelford said.

Shackelford said their project didn’t start out with much structure because Paz y Bien was just getting the bag project started.

“We were given the bags and asked to come up with a marketing plan,” she said. “We were free to go any direction we wanted.”

In the group’s presentation of their project during their class on Monday, Western graduate student Lauren McKnew-Bell said they focused on how to market the bags in the United States.

But even with this specific focus, the group will be unable to see their project through to the end because they are limited by the length of the quarter.

Western graduate student Elizabeth Wood said it was hard knowing they would have to pass their project on.

“We had to resign ourselves to being the first step and passing the torch to someone else,” Wood said.

Looking into the future, the entire group said they are excited to see the bags they helped design in stores.

They also said they hope to soon see a Paz y Bien Web site in English where people can learn about the nonprofit and make online donations. The nonprofit's current Web site is entirely in Spanish.

While working on the project, Shackelford said it was sometimes difficult to deal with the distance and the language barrier between the Western group and the nonprofit's staff and clients. However, marketing professor Liliana Deck, who teaches the class, was able to act as an interpreter for the group, and they were able to have a video conference with their Colombian counterparts.

During the presentation, McKnew-Bell said the video conference was a highlight of the project.

“It brought [the project] to life for us because we couldn’t go to the organization,” she said.

The Western group partnered with students from Colombia’s Universidad del Valle to help the nonprofit, and McKnew-Bell said there was a possibility of setting up an exchange program between the two institutions to continue work with the nonprofit.

Deck acted as a liaison to the Universidad del Valle through her father, the dean of its chemical engineering department.

“To be able to witness the connection between the universities for the betterment of society was very powerful and personal,” she said.
Deck said all of the students in the class have to volunteer with a nonprofit organization, but the group working with Paz y Bien was the first to go international with their project.

Other groups worked with the Brigid Collins Family Support Center, the Nooksack Salmon Enhancement Association, the American Cancer Society, Books to Prisoners, the Assistance League and ReSources.

Deck said she would like to see more international projects, but because they are so time and energy intensive, resources only allow for one per quarter.

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