Pueblo to People marketed crafts from artisans in Latin American to people in the USA through a mail order catalog. The organization had a very successful model of self-sustaining development that empowered the poor. This advance purchase allows the producer to buy raw materials and supplies for creating more items, more cost-effectively. Each trading partner provides services to several of these grassroots groups, taking pictures of the artisans at work and the products for sale. They can also answer questions about products via email.
Trading partners make the link between the artisan and technology.
Custom Wholesale Maximo Terraza is a very bright young Guatemalan, but his parents were unable to afford to send him to college. Maximo supports 8-9 weaving groups, travelling throughout his local area taking pictures of people doing the weaving and dyeing. He has created an extensive web site in Spanish for the groups he supports, completely on his own. He found a basket on the wholesale site that was close, but it was too big and too expensive, so an email message was sent to Maximo, to determine if it was possible to get the basket made in a smaller size and a lower price. Maximo worked directly with the producer, took a picture of a new sample to the customer's specifications and sent back an email message with the picture and a lower price.