Inspiring stories from the Andes
Alejandro and Bacilia and their baby live in a small adobe hut with a grass roof and dirt floor. Their house is approximately 2.5m by 4m and has a low roof and a small entrance only 1 metre high to minimise heat escaping. Very few trees grow at an altitude of 4500 metres so Bacilia uses dung from sheep and alpacas as fuel to cook potatoes. They have a gas stove but have little opportunity to purchase gas to fuel it. A few furtive guinea pigs hide in the shadows and creep out to feed on food scraps.
Mamacha buys the beautiful traditional hats that Bacilia knits. The process is lengthy and highly skilled. She starts by dyeing sheep’s wool in earthenware pots using plants, lichen, insects and rocks. Once the dye has fixed she spins the wool with a small wooden spindle. When she has many different coloured balls of yarn she begins knitting hats using the designs passed down through the generations.
The money she earns means she can afford essentials like medicines and perhaps save to send her young child to school.
Esperanza is one of about 80 women that live in the Pitumarca Valley and are part of the workshop there. Sister Cathy lives in the village and has opened up her front room to be used as a stock room and meeting place for the women. In a region where none of the inhabitants have bank accounts Sister Cathy helps Mamacha by distributing funds for the project. She provides the women with pure alpaca wool sourced in Cusco. They are then able to knit scarves, ponchos or finger puppets in their own homes while they look after their children or animals. Once each woman has completed her scarf she returns to the workshop for immediate payment. Unlike other artisans in Peru these women do not have to spend large amounts of money to buy the raw materials for their work and they do not have to wait for long periods to receive payment.The picture shows Esperanza and her son with Veronica, who helps Sr Cathy in managing the day to day activities of the workshop and is translates from Quechua to Spanish when necessary. Veronica is weighing and measuring Esperanza’s grey scarf before paying her for her work. She then weighs out another measure of wool for Esperanza’s next piece. Each member of the group has a white card that records how much they have been paid to ensure that the work is shared equally. Without this project Esperanza would have no means of earning an income.
Maribel is another member of the Pitumarca group run by Sr Cathy. She is also the Pre-school teacher in the very remote hamlet of Japura. She lives in Pitumarca 20 kilometres further down the valley and is lucky to have received an education. She is bilingual, speaking Spanish and Quechua. Early every Monday Maribel leaves her home at 3am to begin the five hour hike up the valley in order to start teaching at 8am. During the working week she sleeps on the floor of the class room, and on Friday she walks back to Pitumarca. Her dedication to the pupils and her positive attitude is an inspiration. Without a teacher the 20 or so pupils would be left alone in the village all day while their parents shepherd their flocks in the mountains or work on the vegetable terraces, a reality for many other Peruvian children in remote villages. As well as providing an income for the hat makers of Japura, Mamacha hopes to one day work with Maribel to establish a nutrition programme for the pre-school children.
Francisca, Benedicta and Necolasa (left to right). The people of the villages of Japura, Osefina, Patana & Uchulluclluc have been making their traditional woven hats for hundreds of years. Their style is unique to the upper reaches of the Pitumarca Valley at an altitude of 4500 metres. Families subsist by growing potatoes in fields irrigated by a glacial melt stream. Their sheep and alpacas are able to forage for food on the steep mountains surrounding the villages. Although largely self sufficient the people require money to purchase medicine or to school their children and to buy vegetables that cannot survive the harsh climate. Although skilled at raising sheep, dyeing wool, spinning and knitting the people receive next to nothing if forced to sell locally. The project driven by Mamacha gives these people an opportunity to sell their hats at a much higher and fairer price.
