Kathy Stutzman’s approach to eradicating poverty centers around one single concept: relationship building.

While she’s always had a passion to help others who are most vulnerable around the globe, her recent work with Rotary’s Fast for Hope initiative has proven to her — and others — that working with people, rather than for people, is the way to go.

“We focus on learning what people’s hopes and dreams are,” Stutzman said.

For the past two years, Stutzman has traveled to Nicaragua through the initiative, where she’s had the opportunity to work with Rotary members from both Minnesota and Central America. While that experience has led to many eye opening instances for Stutzman, the one that most stands out is her involvement with the women of Tipi Tapa.

The group of women are part of Hope through Action, a micro-economic business development model aimed at eradicating poverty through the build-up of sustainable businesses. Hope through Action helps artisans from around the world, in addition to the group in Nicaragua.

The 10 women work daily, making purses out of items thrown in the trash. On an average day, six purses are created.

It may sound like an undesirable product, but the purses are quickly becoming a hit around the globe.

The style of the purses have been successful in appealing to women from a variety of cultures, but it’s the message behind the accessories that Stutzman feels represents the true value of the purse.

“When you know the story behind it, you can’t not think of their resiliency,” she said.

With economic times weighing on people’s minds, Stutzman looks to the purses as representations of what is possible when problem solving is put to the test and resiliency pulls through.

“When I think about what these women are able to do with trash, I’m inspired,” Stutzman said.

For Stutzman, her fellow Rotarians, and even her family, developing relationships with the women has been an enriching part of the experience. Seeing their commitment first-hand has played a huge role in that.

In addition to selling the purses, Stutzman and Rotarians have worked to collect potato chip bags and the like for the women. That way, the females of Tipi Tapa won’t have to spend one work day digging through the dump, which is how they currently find the trash for their products.

Stutzman said the hands-on approach to helping the women, both through the collection of trash and selling of purses, has given people in this area an avenue to help.

“This is one way everyone can help,” she said.

To learn more about purchasing the purses or helping out with the initiative, call Kathy Stutzman at 507-219-0912.