Capacity-building for rural women artisans in Peru

Amid protests, shutdowns and political strife in Peru, we continue to stand with with our artisan partners. We are so grateful to you for your partnership through these years of pandemic, economic upheaval and political unrest. Today we want to offer you a bright story in gratitude to you for your partnership.

Jesusa, pictured, is a member of the Songuillay weaving cooperative in Patacancha. At Awamaki, we have known Jesusa for years. She joined our program as a young teenager, and she was one of the first high school graduates in her cooperative. Awamaki's program, which allowed her to earn money from weaving while studying, allowed her to stay in school while helping her single mother support her and her younger sister.

Confident and fluent in Spanish, Jesusa regularly advocated for cooperative members and expressed their concerns in meetings with us.

Now, Jesusa has children of her own, and she serves as the tourism coordinator of her cooperative. She manages the tourism reservations and the rotation schedule that the women created with Awamaki's capacity-building programs years ago.

Jesusa's cooperative graduated from our training program in late 2019, ready for the challenge of hosting tourists on their own, and not just the groups that come through Awamaki's program. Before they could tackle even a single high season, the pandemic derailed their plans.

While they waited for tourism to return, the artisans focused on agricultural work, filled orders for Awamaki's wholesale textile clients, and participated in Awamaki's food relief program, which many of you supported, receiving monthly food baskets to support their families.

Happily, in recent months, tourism began to return, not only through Awamaki, but directly to the cooperative, as they had planned and worked towards for years. "We have had three groups visit" this fall, said Yolanda, the cooperative's president. "We have a little something now. We rotate so it is a little bit for everyone."

Jesusa, Yolanda and the rest of the Songuillay cooperative worked hard to build an independent, successful business. When they saw it disrupted by the pandemic, they told us they worried whether tourism would come back at all. They are all cheered by this auspicious sign for the recovery of their business.

While current political troubles have been a setback for this budding recovery, Jesusa's and Yolanda's cooperative has shown that they have the strong foundation and resilience to weather yet another temporary setback--and that their business and leadership skills are already enabling them to rebuild their communities after three difficult years.

"We are receiving the tourists at the center the same way that Awamaki taught," Yolanda told us. "Now we have a little something for our children."

We are so grateful to you for your partnership in supporting the artisan women who are holding their communities together and working to rebuild the future in rural Peru.

Hello all and thank you for your support so far this year!

In exciting news, we have been working with the artisans to launch our first new products since the pandemic. The Allpa throw blanket and accompanying pillows is unlike anything we have created for export before. To create this line, we drew on the artisans’ own alpaca herds, which they and their families sheared. WIht that raw fleece, our Puska Tika cooperative spun the raw alpaca fleece into the unique, chunky, handspun alpaca yarn that we have developed with them over hte years, which is softer, thicker and more rustic than the very thin, tight yarn that is usually spun for weaving. Once the yarn was spun, we dyed it using all natural dye plants and cochineal,  including a range of reds and grays, and then our Awac Phuna and Kelkanca cooperatives wove the blankets and the pillow covers on the backstrap loom. Because of its size, the blanket is made up of two pieces joined together with a unique Andean embroidered stitch down the center.  The blanket is new to our online store, and new products in this line will target our online store customers specifically, allowing them to open new markets. 

In addition to the new throws, we have launched a new collection for our wholesale customers, including a new pom-pom bucket bag and updated versions of many favorites, like our keychains and our mini messenger bags. We are so happy to be able to be working with our artisan partners again on new products. 

Our artisan partners in the Awc Phuna cooperative are working hard to prepare their community for visits from tourists. They have selected land and they are working to build a center where they can meet, weave, hold trainings and receive tourists. This center was supposed to be built in 2020, and we are so joyful to be finally progressing with them towards their dream of hosting tourists in their village. 

Finally, we have also run a series of tourism workshops, including a field trip to visit a successful women-led tourism cooperative in Laguna Piuray, outside Cusco. Their hosts showed them the demonstration they do for tourists, gave them advice about hosting tourists, and shared their experiences welcoming tourists to their community.

Links:

• Video of Our Tourism Cooperative Exchange Day (via TikTok)
• Artisans Visit Laguna Piuray on the Field Trip (via TikTok)
• Handspun Alpaca Throw on our online store