Story about this location:

Three years ago, Ms. Denise Maria Detogni started Mae Terra (My Land), her own handicrafts shop in the Centro Histôrico of Paraty. Since Paraty is a major tourist spot in Brazil, her bilingual skills (English and Portuguese), help her in communicating with both locals and tourists alike. She hires local people not only from Paraty, but from all over Brazil, including Indians to work on the artifacts that she retails in her shop. The artifacts are priced from anywhere in the range of US $5 - $130. This way she not only helps establish a source of income for local artists, but also the whole city as she draws in more and more tourist customers. Her shop is “Fair Trade Organization Certified” (Part of the International Fair Trade Association: http://www.ifat.org) which implies that she provides fair wages to the locals that work for her. Ms. Detogni is against the idea of hiring school-aged children during the school year because she understands the importance of education and is aware of the vicious cycle of child labor that exists in most parts of Brazil today. Since her shop is fairly new, she has not had the chance to give back to her community as much as she would like to, but she tries to help in community projects focused on the upkeep of a clean and green Paraty. Her mission in establishing Mae Terra is not only to help local artists thrive but also to address the social issue of child labor and to keep Paraty an environmentally friendly town.

Sustainable features:

Mae Terra is designed in an energy efficient way and makes the most of its available space. Ms. Detogni prefers to use fans instead of air conditioners, thereby not only reducing pollution, but also saving on high electricity bills. Not only are the products she sells made out of recycled materials, she also uses recycled paper bags and visiting cards.

Type of location: Handicrafts, Artist
Mae Terra
Rua da Lapa (Shop 6 in the Galeria das Artes)
T: (24) 3371-0060
denisedetogni@hotmail.com
Languages spoken: Portuguese, English

Rating 4.33 out of 5