Pubdate: Tue, 02 Dec 2003 Source: Miami Herald (FL) Copyright: 2003 The Miami Herald Contact: http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/262 Author: Kim Housego, Associated Press LINGERIE CROPS UP IN COLOMBIA Coffee, Cocaine Or Lingerie? A U.N.-Backed Work Program Shows Some Rural Colombians That Sex Sells -- In The Underwear Industry BOGOTA - First they grew coffee. When prices for the bean collapsed, many turned to growing illegal drug crops. And now, hundreds of rural Colombians, hoping for a better living, are trying their hand at making racy lingerie for a French retail chain under a new U.N.-backed program. The wispy G-strings, revealing bras and lacy garter belts went on sale Saturday at Carrefour's 11 outlets around Colombia. The undergarments will be sold at its overseas stores in coming months. ''We are opening up a universe of new possibilities for Colombia's rural communities,'' said Gabriel Silva, head of the Colombian Federation of Coffee Growers, which along with the French Embassy, the United Nations drug office and Carrefour is promoting the alternative development project. The project was conceived when farmers in the coffee-growing region began cultivating illicit drug crops, which swelled the ranks of Colombia's leftist rebel and right-wing paramilitary groups that control the trade. Colombia produces 70 percent of the world's cocaine and most of the heroin sold in the United States. JOB SEARCH Alarmed by a sharp rise in poverty and crime in southwest Colombia's coffee-rich Valle del Cauca region in the past few years, the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime tried to find jobs and markets for the poor farmers. ''We searched for projects that we believed could reduce illicit activities,'' said Thierry Rostan, the U.N. drug office representative in Colombia who led the effort. ``What people needed were jobs and places to sell their products.'' After touring Valle del Cauca, Rostan identified a local cooperative, Integrated Industries, that trained poor families in new skills. But with little access to markets, the cooperative was struggling to find enough work for its employees, and needed a major company like Carrefour to broaden its reach. Carrefour's underwear label, Symphony, hooked up with the cooperative, which has 12 production centers scattered across the province. The centers have good access to roads, overcoming a problem that has bedeviled other development projects. In the past, efforts to promote coca alternatives, notably fruits and vegetables, in remote areas of the country have often foundered because of a lack of infrastructure and usable roads. PAY AND BENEFITS About 800 women, many of them heads of families, are making the lingerie. They take home about 800,000 Colombian pesos -- about $280 -- a month, about double the minimum wage and far more than what they could make growing coffee. They also enjoy health benefits and paid vacation. Coca growers, in comparison, make about 200,000 Colombian pesos -- or $70 -- but they also need to pay taxes to illegal armed groups. This year, Carrefour has spent about $63,500 on the lingerie project, and expects to spend $106,000 in 2004. Last week, top models paraded the products to disco beats and flashing lights along a catwalk in Bogota's French Lycee in front of business executives, politicians, lawmakers and French Ambassador Daniel Parfait. ''Violence and unemployment have brought misery to rural Colombia,'' Edilma Arango, of Integrated Industries, told the dignitaries. ``You are bringing hope.'' - --- MAP posted-by: Josh