Mujeres Unidas is an outgrowth of Helping Hands, a multi-purpose service organization in Mora, New Mexico. Our executive director Anita LaRan was inspired by her involvement as part of the RDLN delegation to the NGO Forum on Women in China in 1995 . She enrolled in the RDLN program and is working toward a degree. At the RDLN Institute in California, she met a community development graduate student who came to Mora for several months to help in the early organization of Mujeres.

Mujeres has provided venues for selling women's creations,has held fashion shows, and has sponsored an artisans' tour annually.

As Helping Hands has gained funds from the Office of Community Services for job training and Welfare to Work, more facilities, including computers, have been made available to women in the area.

Mujeres has gained the use of a building for a production center, store, and meeting and training space. Architectural plans for renovation have been sketched. A commercial kitchen is part of the plan. The site fronts on the road and backs on a river, so it will be accessible to travelers, but will provide a peaceful setting for a cafe and riverwalk.

Working with RDLN's coordinated fundraising strategy, Mujeres has gained funds for outreach, training and microenterprise development from the New Mexico Community Foundation, the McCune Foundation, the Methodist Minority Self-Determination Fund, and the Episcopal Church. We are in the process of testing items to market more broadly.