Without Work or Housing, These Single Mothers Built Their Own Eco-village

So Angela Dolmetsh, the association's director, set out to find a plot of land on which to build homes for the single mothers the association employed. The central idea was to create a place where women could live and work, enabling them to raise their families while supporting themselves financially. With a personal donation from Dolmetsh, it settled on an area in Palmira, 20 minutes outside the city of Cali, and subsequently received government grants and began building homes for $9,000 per unit. The first four homes were built in 2008, and the women who moved in were enrolled in classes on recycling, composting, papermaking, and sustainable farming.