We recently connected with Annie Jameson and have shared our conversation below.

Annie, appreciate you joining us today. One of the most important things small businesses can do, in our view, is to serve underserved communities that are ignored by giant corporations who often are just creating mass-market, one-size-fits-all solutions. Talk to us about how you serve an underserved community.

Eden is a nonprofit organization that employs adults with disabilities in Guatemala. The participants with disabilities handcraft organic wellness products and beeswax candles, and the organization creates a platform to sell their products. The participants earn 100% of the profits on sales and, in general, are earning more than 3x the local minimum hourly wage. In this way, Eden offers personal wellness for the collective good.

My Eden cofounder and I identified that Guatemalans with disabilities are extremely marginalized, isolated, and discriminated against in society – in fact many people with disabilities never had access to education or therapy, and definitely don’t have access to employment. Eden strives to create sustainable social change by providing flexible and sustainable employment, family education, and community events that combine to create a ripple effect of social inclusion and respect at a wider level.

In fact, we can share a small example of how this ripple effect has taken place. We work with one participant who always wanted to have a dog! But, his mother refused to get him a dog and to take on ‘more responsibility.’ Understandable! Except, her son wanted to take on that responsibility himself. With his earnings from Eden, he adopted a street dog named Cinco in 2021 and paid for its veterinary expenses and food, and he continues to care for his pet. Then in 2023, he saved enough money to buy himself a bike – another luxury that he had wanted. Since then, he bikes around his neighborhood with his dog on a leash. He’s more visible and active in his community, and he regularly buys snacks and treats for his family independently. His community has become more exposed to him and his disability, and they’ve become more welcoming to him and to his family! His employment allowed him to take on more responsibility in his personal life, which changed his family dynamics, which also changed and improved his community relations. Inclusion is powerful!

Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.

Nice to meet you – I’m Annie! I was a Special Education teacher in Seattle until 2019 when I moved to Guatemala. I volunteered in Guatemala in 2017 and 2018, and I met Rodolfo who shared my passion for disability inclusion. He invited me to share in his vision to create employment for disabled adults. So, I moved to Guatemala in 2019, and we started Eden.

Eden was founded by friends with and without disabilities, deciding to create a solution for the widespread problem of isolation, discrimination and marginalization toward people with disabilities in Guatemala. Our nonprofit and social enterprise provides sustainable and flexible employment while also providing community and family education for disabled adults. The participants of Eden, who are usually referred to as entrepreneurs, handmake organic wellness products using essential oils – products like pain relief rollers, repellents, body scrubs, and pillow sprays. They also make a line of beeswax candles.

Not only do we make high-quality, competitively priced products that are popular amongst tourists and locals alike in Guatemala, but 100% of each sale goes directly back to the salaries of the entrepreneurs with disabilities, who are now earning 3x the local hourly wage. For many people in Guatemala, the Eden brand is their only exposure to neurodiverse people.

Because there is no public Special Education in Guatemala, many people are not exposed to neurodiversity. Diversity is truly a privilege! In being surrounded by diversity, all people become more creative, more innovative, more compassionate and empathetic, more tolerant of themselves and others, and more patient. Inclusion is not passive – we have to actively create space and access for those who are otherwise excluded. Eden, though small, is working to actively create this inclusion and diversity amplification in Guatemala by means of inclusive employment. The future is inclusive, and we’re glad to be a part of it!

How’d you meet your business partner?

I was a special education teacher volunteering in Guatemala in 2017 when I met Rodolfo, Eden’s Guatemalan cofounder! We stayed in contact when I went back to work, but then I returned to volunteer again in 2018 for a week. Rodolfo and I shared a vision for an inclusive society and a passion for supporting people with disabilities. Rodolfo had an amazing idea on how to create inclusion sustainably – open the market for disabled adults by opening a new market of clean and simple wellness products. I decided to move to Guatemala to help cofound Eden with Rodolfo in 2019. Over time, our shared passion and our project work developed into something more, and in 2024 we were married! Now, we’re officially cofounders, partners, and spouses. <3

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I’ve had to unlearn lessons of colonization. As a white person, I grew up entrenched in the ideals and tropes of colonization – that “white is right” and “white savior” mentality has sifted into many of my unconscious beliefs. For example, when I first came to Guatemala, I wanted to work with families on the goal of helping their disabled adult child access independence to the level that they might live on their own. However, this notion was contradictory to culture of multigenerational family living. This lens of colonization also plagued me at the micro level – my assumptions about what was best for event timing, invitations, menus, general communications, and even product labeling were rooted in my assumptions that my U.S. based way of thinking was better. But, with time and conversations, I’ve been able to unpack this deeply rooted idea that my norms were superior to the norms of my new home, Guatemala – regardless of cultural differences and levels of development. Unlearning colonialism has been incredibly liberating. I’m able to work with my Guatemalan community with much more creativity and freedom! The work of anti-colonizing myself has actually allowed me the honor of being able to live within my community and to fully appreciate our inclusion work. Unlearning my once-unconscious assumptions has allowed me to learn new ways of living, and it’s been worth every moment.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.edenguatemala.com
• Instagram: eden_porsalud
• Facebook: EdenPorSalud

Image Credits

N/a