CREATING DE OPPORTUNITIES FOR DE WORK AND FAIR TRADE
BY EMPOWERING RURAL WOMEN
IN ANDEAN COMMUNITIES
The Paqocha – Mamita Project is a proposal for the sustainable development of communities by involving 3 groups present in every community:
- Men: alpaca herders
- Women: mothers and children of the community
- Youth: young people of the community
Our goal is to involve the community of Huarqui in a 3-phase process that will benefit the whole community.
FAIR TRADE: The first phase is collecting alpaca fiber from approximately 700 alpaca-herding families, involving the community’s men in the process of turning alpaca fiber into yarn: paying for the spinning, leaving their fiber as part of the payment, or contributing their fiber as working capital.
JOB OPPORTUNITIES: Involving the “mamitas” by hiring them as the plant’s first operators, where they learn the spinning process, and then encouraging them to become entrepreneurs by providing them with a spinning machine to work from home, giving them time to be role-model mothers and to end the anemia that affects many children in these communities.
INCUBATING CREATIVITY: Every community has creative young people, and involving them in promoting experiential tourism around alpaca fiber spinning and the reduction of child anemia, in creative ways, provides great material for social media.
Despite women’s growing role in rural areas, few are leaders or have decision-making power in their community. The assessment also showed that many women were unaware of their rights and responsibilities in community leadership.
So how can we empower these women?
One of the goals of this project is to help improve women’s technical skills and raise awareness among members of various communities about women’s specific needs and expectations regarding alpaca spinning and their children’s nutrition.
As part of the project we will hold workshops, set up women-only committees and share experiences with other women leaders. From the start we will apply a participatory methodology to include women and young people in their community’s decision-making spaces.
INVOLVING 700 ALPACA HERDERS TO COLLECT 2 TONS OF FIBER AND PRODUCE 3,600 GARMENTS VALUED AT 50 SOLES EACH
EMPOWERING 48 MAMITAS AS ENTREPRENEURS AND REDUCING ANEMIA IN 100 CHILDREN
TRAINING 10 YOUNG PEOPLE TO PROMOTE THE COMMUNITY’S EXPERIENTIAL TOURISM
