Capacity-building for rural women artisans in Peru

Hello all,

I am writing to thank you for your support of food relief to our Quechua artisan women partners and their families this year.

It has been a tough year in Peru, as it has been all over the world. Peru had a military-enforced lockdown that lasted four months, and the third-highest COVID mortality rate in the world. Our artisan partners went from successful entrepreneurs excited about their businesses, filling textile orders, and connecting with customers, to having little to no financial resources or food security besides what they had grown on their small subsistence farms. Their villages do not have markets, and transportation in the valley where we work was closed for much of the year. This means that the families had to survive on the potato harvest that they planted the previous summer, intended as supplemental food, or walk 4-13 hours each way to spend their limited savings at the market.

It was difficult to to know they were in this position. Their villages have made incredible strides over the past generation. When our artisan partners were growing up in these villages, school didn't go past third grade.  There wasn't a road or public transportation, so the 4-13 hour walk to town was part of life if you wanted to go to market or a health clinic. There were few ways to make money, and families relied on farming and barter. The women with whom we partner have been working so hard to give their kids more than they had, like education and food security. In all the impact assessment we do, again and again these are the main things they tell us they are spending their income on--buying food and sending kids to study. Now, with the pandemic, it feels like they lost a generation of progress in one swoop. Children can no longer attend school, the women are isolated in their villages without transportation, jobs have disappeared, and they are relying again on subsistence farming to feed their families.

Of course, this progress isn't really lost. I believe that tourism will be back, and the schools will reopen. The artisans are working with us at Awamaki to figure out ways to keep business going. But this year, they told us that they feel isolated and scared, and that without outside help, they had only potatoes to feed their kids. I am so grateful to you for helping us change that. The food you have provided this year has been a lifeline to our partners and their families, including the 522 children that they support. Your support was also hope and solidarity and a hand up at a time when quarantine measures left them without any resources from outside their small villages. Every time our team comes back from a food delivery they try to tell me how much this assistance means to the artisans and I have to say, as I try to do the same thing here--it is hard to fully convey what a difference this support is making to these families.

In 2020, thanks to your help, we carried out eight monthly food deliveries to 163 artisans and their families in four villages over the course of the pandemic. This is an incredible accomplishment, far beyond what we initially imagined would be needed or even possible. I am so grateful for your partnership in making this happen.

Unfortunately, we all know that the pandemic is far from over. Our team at Awamaki is committed to continuing food support throughout 2021 until the artisans can return to their businesses. It may be well into this year before tourism returns to Peru and the Sacred Valley, and our goal is to ensure that the artisans’ and their families’ basic needs are met until then. I hope you will consider joining us in supporting the food deliveries into the new year. We are so grateful to you for standing by them during this time.

Thank you and I hope your new year has been off to a good start. 

Links:

• Awamaki COVID Response Video

Dear friends,

As the pandemic continues in Peru and across the world, we continue working to make sure that our artisan partners and their families have food security during this difficult time.

Back in March, we all hoped that life would be getting back to normal by this time. It is clear that is not the case.   Peru had one of the longest and strictest lockdowns in the world; despite these drastic measures, it has also had one of the worst outbreaks anbd highest fatality rates in the world. After over three months in military-enforced lockdown, during which adults were only allowed to leave their homes for necessities, children were not allowed out to play, and basic services like public transportation and the mail were suspended, the country began the reopening process. Many regions, including Cusco, saw a quick resurgence of the virus. After only a few weeks, Cusco was out of ICU beds and cases were continuing to rise, and the reopening was paused or reversed.

Our artisan partners and the people of Ollantaytambo have been scared. The town is 1.5 hours from Cusco and doesn't have health facilities to care for COVID patients.  The people of the town have imposed a voluntary quarantine that they are asking surrounding villages, nearby towns and transport operators to honor. We are hoping that this will keep the people of the town and the villages from further spread. However, it does mean we are back to a situation where markets are inaccessible to our artisan partners and they are isolated in their villages without any way to earn income or access food beyond the potatoes that they planted last August and intended as supplemental to what they normally buy. 

When you and others contributed enough for four rounds of food distribution we believed that it would be enough to see our artisan families through this pandemic. It is becoming clear that the hardship will last for longer and our goal now is to support the families through the duration of the crisis and all the way out the other side. We are so grateful for all your generosity which has enabled us to provide this support so far. 

In the meantime we have been speaking to our artisans about what life is like in quarantine. They have told us about returning to older ways, supporting each other with the custom of Ayni. "There are many people working in the Ayni," artisan Simeona from Huilloc told us.  The principle of Andean reciprocity, Ayni means "today for you, tomorrow for me," and this idea has guided Andean life for centuries. Ayni governs how villages work together to farm each family's fields and share resources. In the pre-tourism economy, this shared community effort was necessary for small farming communities to survive in the harsh and remote Andes.   "Our grandparents used to practice Ayni, then the farms were abandoned," said Agripina.  Now, as the planting season begins, families are taking turns working in communal labor parties in each others' fields, trying to grow as much food as they can for the coming year.

They also explained how Ayni has guided other aspects of life. "There is no internet connection. We lend each other our cell phones so our children can take classes," Hilda from Huilloc explained. Artisan Gregoria from Kelkanca told us, "Ayni is done with food as well. We don't always have our pantries full."

These communities are strong and resilient. It is an honor to work with them and support them as they draw on their customs and the resources they have to build a better future, even facing the threat and uncertainty that the pandemic has brought.

Thank you for all you are doing to walk with us and our artisan partners through this difficult time.

Links:

• Awamaki COVID Response Video
• "We are living in fear" Vice article on COVID impact in villages