Marlen Pacheco's company, Watay, sources 80 percent of its materials from farmers, artists and other producers in Colombia, including those from Santander, a community known for processing and selling rough and durable jute. Pacheco started as a wool weaver but now designs, weaves and sells jute rugs. “I started searching for new material,” she wrote in her IFAM application. When she discovered jute, “no looms were adapted to use that fiber so... I made the first 15-foot loom in Colombia.” She notes that she employs almost 15 people and that her life has changed as this work has empowered both her and those she employs.