On June 1, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton arrived in El Salvador joining officials from nearly 75 countries to celebrate the presidential inauguration of El Salvador’s first President from the FMLN party, Mauricio Funes.

In honor of the historic event and to celebrate the Secretary’s visit, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) organized a special gathering at MARTE, a local art museum, with its local counterpart FOMILENIO. The MARTE event exhibited products and projects supported by MCC compact funding in the northern area of El Salvador and progress made by local artisans and other beneficiaries. FOMILENIO asked ATA to decorate the event with handmade products and ceramic vases and also requested that ATA choose one talented artisan to represent the project, who would personally meet with Secretary Clinton. ATA selected Juventina Perez, a 21 year old master artisan from Guatajiagua. ATA has worked in the Guatajiagua community for more than five years, assisting with product development and providing clay processing equipment and technical skills training. Juventina was the first FOMILENIO representative to present to Secretary Clinton and spent several minutes carefully explaining how she designed her products, which included black clay plates enhanced with a new design created by IPAN designer and ATA consultant Kathya Lemus.

“I told [Secretary Clinton] about the trainings and that I was teaching as a Master Artisan for the FOMILENIO project. I thanked her for the support the United States’ government was giving us, as artisans, it’s really important for them to continue supporting us, so I said thank you and to please keep supporting us and she said she would. And I showed her my products,” Perez said.

Secretary Clinton thanked Perez for her involvement at the special event. Finally, FOMILENIO requested that ATA design a memento for the Secretary of State as a thank you for her visit. Lemus designed a special burnt wood plaque with a glass panel.

“It was a real honor for ATA to be asked by FOMILENIO to design a special recognition for the Secretary of State, and the artisans worked hard to put everything together in less than a week. We designed a unique plaque with the MCC logo on it and text provided by FOMILENIO thanking the Secretary for her support of beneficiaries in the northern area of the country. It was also a fabulous experience to be able to share our work directly with her through our Master Artisan Juventina Perez, who showed several of her new designs in black clay, and through the displays of other agricultural and dairy products in baskets and bowls made by Salvadorian artists involved in ATA’s projects,” said Connie Gonzalez, Aid to Artisans IPAN Project Manager.

The Secretary of State is one member of the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s (MCC) Board of Directors. As such, Secretary Hillary Clinton often oversees and attends special MCC events, including the recent exhibition in El Salvador. The MCC is a United States Government corporation designed to work with some of the poorest countries in the world. Its mission is to reduce global poverty through the promotion of sustainable economic growth. The MCC is supported locally by the Salvadorian government’s counterpart institution, FOMILENIO. ATA is currently implementing two craft projects with FOMILENIO and MCC funding in the northern area of El Salvador to improve production, foster product development and promote local, regional and international sales.