Gender Equality Peru Project #44059

Empower Peruvian Women Living in Poverty

by Globalteer

Empower Peruvian Women Living in Poverty

Project Report | Feb 23, 2021
New Businesses Up and Running

By Jenny Byrne | Fundraising & Communications Officer

Guinea pigs settling into their new home

With reduced Covid-19 restrictions at the end of 2020, we were able to finish off the construction of the new guinea pig houses we had started, putting on the missing roofs and finishing the newest building. Our three new business owners, Nelly, Nicasia y Francisca are raising their first litters of guinea pigs, which will be ready for market soon! We continued to source the adobe (mud) bricks from community members, to help support the local economy and reduce transport costs and logistics. As usual, the building process was a collaboration, with the women and their families getting stuck in and doing a lot of the construction work.

After the end of year celebrations, Covid-19 cases were on the rise again, so the government rolled back some of the allowed activities, including dining in at restaurants. This means that the demand for guinea pig has not been as high recently, but the women have been selling animals to their neighbours and other communities, or supplementing their family’s diets with this delicious and protein rich meat!

Once restrictions are loosened, we will be able to start visiting the women more again, to offer additional training and support. Specifically, we have an animal husbandry workshop planned, to ensure they know the best way to care for their animals to increase production. Training is a key aspect to this project, to ensure that the women are truly empowered to continue running and building these businesses independently.

To highlight International Women’s Day on 8^th March, GlobalGiving is running an International Women’s Week Campaign from 8^th to 12^th March and has selected our Women’s Empowerment Project to take part! This means that GlobalGiving will 50% match every donation up to $50 received for this project during that week, and will also match any new recurring donations! We know times are hard, but if you do wish to donate, doing so between 8^th and 12^th March will help your generosity to go even further.

Thank you for your continued support and for making a real difference in the lives of women in rural Peru.

Training is a key for future independence

Adobe walls for a new guinea pig house

Links:

Permalink

Oct 20, 2020
Progress, even during the pandemic!

By Genny Richard | Project Assistant

Adobe bricks being prepared for construction

Although our contact with our group of women has been limited due to pandemic restrictions in Cusco, we have none the less been able to make quite a bit of progress with our project. We have adapted our system of building guinea pig houses, hiring members of the local community to make the adobe bricks used for the walls of the structures, rather than buying them from other producers. This is an asset to both us and the community, as we can avoid transport costs bringing in the adobe bricks from other areas and we can provide work for people in the village, which is much needed during these times.

Using this system, we have finished the main structure of two new guinea pig structures for two additional women to begin their businesses. We just need to add roofing and other materials that we must transport in from other areas, which is now possible due to travel restrictions being lifted. Local village members are also in the process of building the walls for one more structure, meaning that soon, three women will have a brand-new start for guinea pig raising!

Now in Business!

We are also proud to report that even during the pandemic, the first businesses we helped to set up have been successfully operating and selling their first guinea pigs! Local restaurants have been allowed to re-open, and many are seeking naturally raised meats, which is great for the women in our programme. As Peru lifts even more restrictions in the coming months, we expect their businesses to flourish.

Greenhouse Plans

In our last report, we spoke about a new aspect to our programme – greenhouses for organic vegetable farming. We are currently speaking with Erlinda, the leader of the group of women we work with in Pinagua, about plans for our first greenhouse. We have the design laid out and should be purchasing all necessary materials soon. Hopefully, with our next report, we’ll have new photos to share from this exciting addition to our project.

Thank you for taking the time to read our update, and as always, thank you for your continued, invaluable support. If you would like to donate, and we hope you do, please visit our page to do so!

A brood of new offspring

Permalink

Jun 22, 2020
Peru Women's Empowerment Update

By Genny Richard | Project Assistant

‹ 1 2 3 4 5 ›

About Project Reports

Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.

If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can recieve an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.