YOU ARE WELCOME TO JOIN VIRTUAL TECALPULCO
AT NABUURS WEBSITE; BASED IN HOLLAND. NABUUR IS AN EXPERIMENTAL ON-LINE COMMUNITY
DEDICATED TO NORTH-SOUTH AND SOUTH-SOUTH COLLABORATION
IN THE SUCCESSFUL IMPLEMENTATION OF VILLAGE-BASED PROJECTS

Alma Areli Luz Mariling Maria Nieves

TO READ OUR LETTERS select ONE OF THE KEYS ON THE LEFT

Tecalpulco, Mexico

Artisan Owned Direct Distribution Model

What's the matter?

With the men of the village long gone as illegal wetback workers in the USA,
the women of Tecalpulco must provide for their families.
They earn a living by practicing traditional local handcraft:
the production of a unique type of jewelry.

They must make do with very low prices for their products
as the commercial and financial middle-men make profits.

To create competitive advantage for themselves,
these women of Taxco and Tecalpulco are creating
an innovative Artisan Owned Direct Distribution Model (AODDM)
which enables them to sell directly to retailers and consumers
by means of DHL International.

When the AODDM has proven its worth in practice,
the women want to offer ) with the help of their nabuurs.
the AODDM direct-marketing model to other village craftspeople,
in the forms of a manual, software, and templates,
for export documentation software, production data base,
server-based marketing tools, cost-price data base software, handbooks....

The women of Tecalpulco now want to sell direct to Europe
as a novel business model of potential great importance, for this,
they do require the help of their virtual neighbors.

What has been done so far?

There has been a lot of very rich discussion about the current state of Artcamp
and how to build and refine the AODDM.
You can see an over view of the discussions,
and see the initial draft of the AODDM
to find out a bit about what has been going on.

Ask questions. We will happily fill you in.

Also, you're just in time to see the introduction of the new product lines
that were designed and created by Alma Areli and Luz Mariling

There is still much work to be done,

and we're happy to have more Neighbors to help.

We are looking for ongoing help and input in the areas of

Marketing and Retail
Media and Promotion
Letter-Writing
Server-Based Software
AODD Model Theory

What you can do

You've already done the most important thing, and that is to show up!

Most of the fun goes on in the Discussion area,
and we invite you to come and participate.

There is no need to be bashful,
the exchange of ideas and resources is what Nabuur is about.

As you become more familiar with the Telcapulco project,
perhaps there will be friends or resources
that can help move us forward
...feel free to invite them in to help.

we look forward to getting to work with you.

Nabuur is looking for virtual neighbours for a test phase
The world is a global village and Nabuur facilitates contact with its neighbours.

Nabuur has been set up to assist local municipalities to solve their problems.
Via the Internet they can contact their 'neighbours' all over the world.
That can help in exchanging knowledge, ideas, and gaining contacts and financial resources.

Nabuur was begun with seven test locations where the community has a clear need.
The illiterate women in the village of Padampur in Nepal, for example, need information
about health and nutrition. In Iquitos, Peru, the original language and culture of the residents
is threatened with extinction, in part because the education is in Spanish.

Via the web site, www.nabuur.com,
you can link to one of the test locations and help to resolve these problems.
The idea behind Nabuur is that affinity with a specific place brings people closer together.

The first locations are Iquitos (Peru), Kouroussa (Guinee), KwaNdengezi (South Africa),
Cairo (Egypt), Izmail (Ukraine), Dharwad (India), Padampur (Nepal).

As the test phase is completed, Nabuur wants to expand the project
to 100 participating agencies in 2004 and 1000 in 2006.

The initiative is supported by Sida, Hivos, Stichting DOEN, and
the Ministry of the Department of Housing, Regional Development and the Environment (VROM).