Bienvenido a Piña Palmera

This workshop is lead by disabled persons from the southern coast of Oaxaca. Its aim is the fabrication of wooden toys with an artistic and individual touch. It’s also a way to promote productive integration and independency to the disabled population.

Creating a fabrication of wooden handicraft toys, which represents a good income source for the disabled persons involved.

Integrating persons with artistic and plastic abilities or with such tendencies in a creative surrounding.

Generating social acceptation towards people with disability by their achievements.

Favoring a change of attitude of the population with disability, as of the society where they interact, so that they can understand themselves as full persons.
The philosophy, ruling the workshop, could be summarized as: DO THE BEST YOU CAN, which implies that each person is an individual, full of abilities and personal qualities.

This area focuses also on occupational therapy, permitting the development of fine motor functions and to stimulate the skin in order to increase the sensitivity of the hands.

Nowadays, the handicraft workshop functions in a different way. Chico, who initiated the shop, is independent now. He still collaborates with Piña, although he isn’t responsible anymore.

Paty is now responsible for the handicraft shop. She supervises the paint work also, if required. Pablo is in charge of cutting handicrafts. In occasions, he trains persons who want to learn to cut our handicrafts out of the wood.

If it’s necessary to produce handicrafts, Paty distributes work according to already demonstrated abilities of craftsmen with and without disability.

For additional information, please write to:

C.A.I. Piña Palmera A.C.
Apartado Postal 109,
C.P. 70900, Pochutla
Oaxaca, México

flapina@laneta.apc.org (Flavia Anau)
caippac@yahoo.com.mx (Office)

Tel. and Fax: +52 958 - 58 43 145
From Mexico City, you have to call to: 01 55 - 56 18 05 18

Normally, there's somebody in the office, but not always.

Download the handicraft catalogue (Document in PowerPoint 509kb)

To order:

Dial Nr. 01 958 - 58 43 145, from Monday to Friday from 8:00am to 2:00pm.

When you have ordered, deposit 50% of the total price in the Check Account Nr.: 4023645724, Banco Bital, Name: Adalberto Ramírez Ramírez, and send us the date by Fax, to Nr.: 01 958 – 58 43 145

These prices don't include tax nor delivery costs.
Delivery costs are included in the invoice.
In case of that you need a copy of the invoice,
we can do that by fax meanwhile we are sending the original.

Send us all dates we need for the invoice in correct form.
Send us the correct direction, where we have to send the packet.

The Carpentry:

The carpentry has one volunteer as responsible person, who is carpenter and who supports us in everything we need from this workshop.

The workshop produces the furniture we need in Piña Palmera. When camps of spring and summer are carried out, he trains children and youths to produce simple, wooden toys like jigsaw puzzles.

The garden

The garden was founded about ten years ago by volunteers and workers of Piña Palmera. The area is accessible for wheelchairs. Among others are corn, sesame, melon, pumpkins and some vegetable species cultivated. We have also a new project which produces humus by composting organic waste with earthworms. Today, we have one volunteer who studied fruit culture and one agronomic technician.

Giving an opportunity of occupational therapy to disabled persons.
Cultivating and cropping fruits (Papayas, Mangos…), plants and vegetables for internal use and to achieve auto sustainability of the Center.
Conserving the green areas.
Maintaining lawn gardens for recreational games for the children.

In the garden it is showed how to prepare earth, how to make compost and how to make familiar gardens for self consumption. To combat some plagues, we use natural remedies like organic insecticides. We work as well with organic humus, which are made of organic kitchen waste and hay. We have started a project, which plants palm trees with the aim to use the leaves to cover the roofs in the Center.

We have initiated a new project of composting with earthworms. We work with Californian earthworms which help us not to use chemicals in our cultivations, as the earthworms generate very rich humus, which has all the nutrients a plant needs to grow. The goal is to generate an ecologic culture in Piña Palmera and to promote in the long run, for example, restaurants in the area which help developing the eco-tourism.

The paper recycling workshop

It was in the year 1996, when this workshop was founded against the growing problem of deforestation, with the aim to sensitize the people due to the conservation and protection of our natural resources.

In the handicraft paper workshop, we try to use all the paper waste from the office in order to process it and to give it a new ecological sense. This workshop is a model, which hasn’t existed yet in the area around Piña Palmera.

In its beginning, we produced just leaves in small quantities. But thanks to creativity, technique perfection and the growing request of handicraft paper, we started to diversify the products.

With this handicraft paper we produce small books, frames, envelopes for postcards and photo albums, among other handicrafts made out of paper, which we sell in the handicraft shop. For all these activities, we count on the support of the volunteers.

Workshops of Piña Palmera

Handicraft Workshop:

For additional information, please write to:

To order:

The Carpentry:

The garden

The paper recycling workshop