Páramo Store

Award-Winning Ethics

The Miquelina Foundation, in Bogotá, Colombia, which was set up over 30 years ago by Sister Esther Castano, has been working with Páramo for 18 uninterrupted years. Páramo and Miquelina have formed a ‘strategic alliance’ which has benefited a vulnerable community enormously. The Miquelina Foundation works for the liberation of marginalised and oppressed women. More than 10,000 “women and teenagers at risk” have been trained in their workshops. Currently, 320 women manufacture the majority of the garments of the Páramo range with international standards accreditation ISO 9001. The factory is one of the most advanced in Bogotá with CAD/CAM and computer driven production. Their achievements include a crèche for 460 children, a canteen where 450 children eat daily, an adult education centre, a virtual library, a housing co-operative that has built 115 homes and a mop factory.

Carbon Neutral Production

Páramo work with the World Land Trust to offset all their primary carbon emissions--and are working hard to offset their emissions for every year they have been operating. By 2017, they aim to have balanced 20 years of CO2 emissions by re-establishing and rehabilitating tropical forests, especially in Ecuador. Páramo also believes that the protection of standing forests is as important as restoring forests, so work with the World Land Trust to invest in conservation projects. Their donations have contributed to the purchase of an 815 acre extension to the Buenaventura Reserve in Ecuador.