The Goethes family, founders of “Manitos”, or “Little Hands” micro-enterprise, use all kinds of recycled materials to manufacture exclusive handcrafted goods, especially artistic products, gift articles and other curiosities made of wood and plastic.

They obtain their raw materials mostly from packagings of consumer goods and other post-consumer “waste”, as well from other biodegradable materials. Their contact with nature and their dedication to its preservation, is a testimony to the fact that it is possible to earn a decent standard of living and at the same time contribute to the national economy and our environment’s well-being.

Little Hands embraces the ideal that progress necessitates the integration of experience and youth as prerequisites for national well-being, as well as the integration of disability and full capacity, independence and familiar creativity, etc, all which is constituted by a social vision of turning this family business into a foundation that will provide work to persons with handicaps.

“In the end, what matters most is not the years of life, but the life in the years” said the United States President, Abraham Lincoln, a phrase that inspired the Goethes to sell in various commercial markets in Tegucigalpa, where they offer their decorative albums to hotels, offices, schools and private homes. After their local success, they have thought of the possibility of expanding their business to the rest of Central America.

The Little Hands company is the result of the work of 4 couples of the Goethe family. They use as company logo the National Flag of Honduras in the background with a sunflower in front. The partnership was is born on October, 2007, but was inaugurated on December of the same year, at the legendary La Leona Park, downtown Tegucigalpa.

Back in June 2006, Derimasa, the largest central-american furniture producing and exporting company, went bankrupt, and my husband Freddy, a german national, became unemployed after working there for more than 28 years. He also did not receive his legal layoff benefits. From this crisis, the idea and the opportunity arose for creating “Little Hands”. .

Verónica de Goethe, wife of Freddy, and main brainstormer in the Goethe Family.

Verónica, a special education professional, worked for the Ministry of Education, but was later dismissed for political reasons. Michael Goethe, son of Verónica, decided to leave the university because he was severely discriminated against because of his physical disabilities. He only needs to finish 10 more classes for his graphical design degree, but has joined the family effort with “Little Hands” to contribute to the family’s income.

“Our children are persons who must shine with their own light, as the rest of human beings in the planet must do, they must be respected and valued.”

Freddy, who is recovering from an accident and has to use a prostheses.

In Honduras there is the “Law for Equality and Integral Development of People with Handicaps”, created by National Congress Decree #160-2005, and approved on October 25, 2005, which establishes the dispositions, rights and privileges of the handicapped population, and the organizations instituted for the matter.

On June 2008, the Ministry of Government and Social Justice established the National Disabled Persons Office that started working under the coordination Ada Isabel Burgos and Luis Pinoc, who represent people with visual impairments, but still this population has not enjoyed any benefits or discounts in the diverse public services of supply, as the law dictates.

“You do not have the face of a poor person” said the National Coordinator of the Units of Community Development (UDECO, a Presidential dependency), Lino Tomás Mendoza, to Verónica, when she asked him on the possibility of financing for her micro-entrepreneurial project, suggesting that physical appearance denotes economic solvency.

“To live not only consists of breathing, but of acting “, said the philosopher Mao Tse-Tung, a phrase that turns into the primary reception logo into the entry to the house visitors, while the freshness and the peace of the place they are constituted in the strategy of business that the Gothes use to do their business and housekeeping.