Rosa Pariona

Rosa Pariona produces small stuffed animals, typical of Peru, made from different types of wool: alpaca and sheep, for example. The animals are common Peruvian animals like guinea pigs, vicuñas, llamas, rabbits, and chicks. She also makes hats and gloves, throw rugs, and seat cushions from the same wool. “Anything that can be made from wool and skins, I make. I can sew anything!”  Her most popular product is the vicuñas. She has had her workshop since 1984.

Rosa is from Huancayo, a city in the mountains approximately 8 hours from Lima. She never knew her mother; she and her two sisters were raised by her father. One sister now lives in Lima, the other in Italy. Rosa learned all of her artesanía skills from her father, who, she says, knew how to make nearly anything. “He didn’t make large quantities of products but rather made many different types of products, all beautiful. In addition to making bags, clothing, rings, hats, he was skilled in carpentry and also built houses. He really knew how to work!”

She married and had nine children. Rosa’s husband began to drink heavily and treat her very badly, including selling their comfortable, 2-story home in Huancayo without telling her and without giving her any of the proceeds from the sale. She realized she had to leave.

She had land where she grew vegetables (the chacra), apart from their home in Huancayo. “When he started to drink and treat me badly, I thought, where am I going to go? Am I going to go to the chacra? No, because the kids didn’t know how to farm. I have to go to Lima for the opportunities.”

She left with her nine children, ranging in age from 5 to 15. They left with just the clothes on their backs, without even money. They slept on cardboard “beds” on the floor of an empty house for three months near the center of Lima. She sold drinks and ice cream, anything she could sell to begin saving a little money.

Pictured inside Rosa’s workshop left to right, Rosa’s husband, son, daughter and Rosa

Soon, however, Rosa realized she needed to move her family. There was a lot of unsafe behavior near their home, and her kids were frightened.   A friend told her that in Huaycán, on the outskirts of the district of Lima, there was available land.  Rosa commented, “I like the climate here. There is always sun in Huaycán, it never rains. It’s good for drying out the skins.”  So they moved to Huaycán and spent one year living on the hillside, a place where the poorest of the poor make their homes. The hillsides rarely have access to utilities and life is a barebones existence.

She had slowly started to construct their house; they had a roof but no walls. An earthquake caused her neighbor’s house to fall onto hers. It destroyed their home and almost buried them there too. While they went to the clinic to have their injuries examined and treated, all of their belongings were stolen. She had to start over, yet again.

Rosa’s big break was when a buyer from Ten Thousand Villages ordered 10,000 stuffed alpacas and gave her a $5,000 advance. “With that money I was able to buy land in Huaycán and start building our own home. He took a chance on me, giving me that money without really knowing me. I was really grateful.”

Rosa pictured in the storefront area of her workshop along with some of her best selling alpaca items.

Her son Enrique built the workshop for her. The front room is a small store, showcasing the artesanía produced inside as well as selling soft drinks and water to neighbors. Rosa commented, “He deliberately made the front room with a curved wall so that a large window could be placed there, bringing in a lot of light to the store to more beautifully display our products.”

 Rosa is quite a businesswoman.  She makes the most of her storefront where she sells different types of artesanía: her own products and those of her children.  She also sells drinks, snacks, has a payphone that is accessible from outside her shop 24 hours a day and makes copies of documents for a small fee.

Rosa later remarried, had two more children, and her husband now works with her in the business. She designs all of her products and has taught her husband the skills needed to work in the workshop. She likes everything about running her business, from the drying of the skins to the sewing and stuffing; even the quality control. “While it takes a lot of time to do quality control and correct items when necessary, it is expensive to have others do it and it isn’t done as well.”

She currently has 9 workers, in addition to herself: three are family members (her husband and two of her oldest children). The six others perform their work in their homes, coming and going from the workshop as needed to pick up materials and drop off completed products. The workers are evenly split between men and women.

When we visited, everyone was working on an order for Manos Amigas, to be sent to Ten Thousand Villages, of 1,000 small stuffed vicuñas and 300 larger stuffed alpaca dolls.

She explained the process: they buy the skins, clean them, then dry them. After they are dried, they draw the design on the skin and sew the animal together. They stuff the animal and comb the outside wool. Depending on the preferences of the client, they either use the natural color of the vicuñas or they dye parts of the vicuña.

While she has always been involved in artesanía in one form or another, before starting her own business she made little bags, jackets, socks. She also spent a lot of time in her chacra, tending to her crops. “I have worked so hard to provide my kids with food and clothes and an education.”

All of her children are artisans and are skilled in various forms of artesanía in addition to working with leather and wool. Some carve wood, others carve gourds or make beaded jewelry. Even her youngest, a 15 year old who is still in school, is skilled at artesanía, making beaded bracelets. Rosa is proud that they each can support themselves with these skills from her family.

Her orders have lowered since the economic crisis started. Whereas she used to produce 15,000 vicuñas per year for clients, she now receives orders for approximately 6,000 vicuñas annually. When she doesn’t have many orders, she augments her income by preparing typical Peruvian food to sell such as cuy (guinea pig) and pachamanca (a dish of meats and potatoes, cooked underground). She rents a kiosk nearby when she has food to sell.

A local parish often has international visitors who come and place orders after seeing her products in her store. These are smaller orders, though, dozens of products instead of thousands.

She explained that she doesn’t have a store in Miraflores, the main neighborhood in Lima that tourists visit, due to the high costs involved. “How am I going to survive if I have to pay out all that money? People come and make small orders from our store here. And every few months I receive an order from Manos Amigas for about 2,000-3,000 vicuñas. I appreciate that Manos Amigas immediately pays me, since then I can go back and immediately pay my workers. They always give me an advance, too, without asking.”

Manos Amigas is her primary client. Rosa appreciates that Manos Amigas treats her well and always fulfills their promises. They are very prompt with their communications. “They are part of my family,” she says.

Rosa can point to very specific ways that her life has changed and improved since she has worked with Manos Amigas. Going from sleeping on cardboard boxes with nine children, with no support from her ex-husband, to building a home and workshop, running a successful business and ensuring that all her children were educated as well as learning the family trade, even after having had to restart from scratch several times… Rosa is resilient! 

Rosa's son built her storefront, workshop, and home (all-in-one) which is pictured above.  She has certainly come a long way from the cardboard boxes she slept on with her children when she first moved to Lima.

Rosa generously presented Simon with a small stuffed vicuna as a gift during our visit.

Rafael del Campo

Alison’s and my primary responsibility with Manos Amigas these days is visiting artisans, photographing them in their workshops, and writing their stories.  One recent visit was with Rafael del Campo.

“I am a painter, drawer, sculptor, and artisan,” Rafael del Campo says when I ask what type of artesanía he produces. “Currently, I produce decorative objects.” At present, his most popular product is nativities.

Rafael and his wife pictured in his workshop.

He is from Matucana, about 3 hours from Lima, in the central jungle. His wife is from Barranco, a southern district of Lima. He came to Lima for his education. “Everyone comes here for their studies because, even though there are universities in other parts of Peru, they do not offer all of the options that Lima universities do. Everyone believes that the capital is the future. The problem is that then there are no more opportunities in the jungle, since all the young people have gone to the city.”

He learned artesanía by working in other workshops. While his parents were artistic and appreciated various art forms, they didn’t cultivate artistic expression in their children. He studied at Bellas Artes, the fine arts academy. Rafael started working in artesanía in 1986 and opened his own workshop in 1990. His work then was more artistic, less commercial than his current work.

He established his current workshop in 2006 and is careful to explain that “Ceramica Nueva” refers to his commitment to Christianity six years ago. Prior to that, he says, there were days when he and his family woke up without any money to buy even bread. But since he has dedicated himself to God, he has been successful.

He lives and works in a small one story building, most of it taken up by his workshop. “We are in the process of expanding,” he says, showing me the two cramped rooms where 12 people work, creating the molds, drying the figures, firing two kilns, painting the figurines and assembling the pieces. “We have applied for the necessary permits to expand, but,” he says, with a shrug, “what can you do? We have been waiting for 2 months for approval and I know we’ll have to wait for at least 2 months more before we get the approval for a roof. We are also talking to the bank for the financing we need to complete the expansion.”

Every inch of space is used in Rafael’s small but busy workshop.  Upon entering it is plain to see it is a place full of life and activity.

Rafael’s business has been impacted by the falling dollar, but in a different way than most: “We have been affected tremendously. But while we receive less money for our work, we are now getting more orders.” He is thankful to have so much work when that is not a common story among his colleagues. He has not had to lay off any workers or take on additional jobs to make ends meet. “Before I opened Ceramica Nueva, I had to supplement my income with sculpting, but now I can make enough to support my family.”

He is busy with orders from Manos Amigas and other clients. “I have three clients but don’t have the capacity to take on more.” He has worked with Manos Amigas for two and a half years, since 2009. One of his friends worked in a workshop that sold to Manos Amigas and introduced him to Manos Amigas. Manos Amigas currently represents 40% of his annual sales.

Manos Amigas is his only fair trade client. It is very important to him to work with fair trade, since he can trust that he will get paid, that he will get paid on time, and that he will receive the 50% advance to purchase his materials and pay his workers. “Others delay with the payment and it affects me.”

An order is being fulfilled for a Japanese client of Manos Amigas.

Rafael showed us additional product samples he had created, functional objects with creative twists, such as a pitcher with two knobs instead of a handle; a teapot that heats up the teacup and fits perfectly inside; a platter that is meant to evoke a potato, Peru’s most popular crop, complete with eyes.

He hopes to be able to expand in this direction, using different glazes, different styles, incorporating more of his artistic skills, in the future. “I would like to diversify into producing these utilitarian objects as well, but I need another, higher-quality kiln to successfully expand into that area.”

Pictured above is a teapot cup combination design that Rafael has made in his attempt to branch out to more utilitarian products.

He and his wife have three children: Julio, 13, Gabriel, 11, and José María, 8. His children help out in the workshop at times and he gives them monetary tips for their work. He thinks they will all follow in his footsteps to be artisans: “They can see how well we have done for ourselves via artesanía. They want to study administration and other subjects to bring that knowledge back to the workshop too.”

Rafael demonstrates the utilitarian use of his artistically designed water pitcher.

It's a Small, Small World

One of my great pleasures in spending time in Peru and volunteering with Manos Amigas is making connections with numerous artisans who make the items we sell at Global Gifts.  My wife Alison and I recently had the pleasure of visiting Fermin Vilcapoma who makes the beautiful teardrop turquoise earring and necklace set pictured below (and sold at Global Gifts).

In fact, Fermin was in the process of creating this necklace and earring set when we visited (see process description later in post).

(Necklace $130, Earrings $54)

After chatting with Fermin for about 30 minutes he asked where we were from.  We answered the United States and he asked which state we came from.  Alison said Indiana and an excited expression came across his face.   “I visited Bloomington, Indiana last year!” he said.  He explained that he was part of a group hosted by the IU business school that travelled from Peru to IU to talk about how they have grown their export business.  “I have a store in Bloomington!” I responded just as excitedly.  “I visited a fair trade store when I was in Bloomington” exclaimed Fermin.  “It had some of my jewelry for sale there.  I was excited to see my jewelry for sale so I had my picture taken with it” he continued.  As he tried to recall the name of the store I said, “Was it Global Gifts?”  “Yes!” said Fermin.

What were the chances that we could make a connection like this?  Later I recalled that Dave, the manager of the Bloomington Global Gifts, had told me about a group of Peruvians that had visited the store early in 2011.  In fact, “One of the Peruvians had found some of his jewelry in our store,” Dave had told me.  “He even had his picture taken with it” Dave had said.  At the time I didn’t think too much of this.  Normally when an artisan visits one of our stores it is because we have arranged it.  Dave nor I had any prior knowledge about this visit so I took it as an interesting and somewhat curious event but didn’t give it more thought after that.  But now here I was with that very artisan.  It felt like finding the missing link of a riddle I had forgotten to solve. 

(Sam pictured with Fermin outside of his workshop/home)

Jewelry Making Process

(Above: When we visited Fermin’s workshop, he was in the process of filling an order for one of his best-selling pairs of earrings.  They are beautiful Peruvian turquoise stone earrings set in silver in the shape of teardrops.  Fermin is holding a chunk of the as-yet-unprocessed turquoise that comes out of the copper mines of Peru. Also pictured is a piece of silver where the design of the earrings has been etched in.)

(Above: 1) Each earring is cut by hand from the silver and 2) the silver earring hooks are cut and formed from what looks like long pieces of silver thread.)

(Above: 1) A neat pile of silver thread, cut for the earring hooks. 2) Finishing touches are made to the earrings when the sides are smoothed and the hooks are attached under the heat of a blowtorch.  3) Last the stone is set within the silver.  We did not have the opportunity to see the stone being cut and polished but this process takes place in the workshop as well.)

More About Fermin

Fermín Vilcapoma Bohórquez is a native of Canta, a province three hours from Lima. He moved to Lima with his mother when he was pretty young; he has lived here since 1^st grade. His wife, Magdalena, is from Lima. They have two sons, Franco (14 years old) and Aaron (11 years old). His workshop and home are located in San Juan de Lurigancho. Fermín produces beautiful jewelry: earrings, pendants, brooches, rings.

He learned jewelry making from his father. Fermín wanted to study systems engineering but was not able to go to university, so he started making a living based on his training. He was the oldest brother and therefore felt somewhat obligated to be an example and join the family business. He has 3 siblings, two brothers and a sister. While his sister is an English teacher, the brothers are also jewelry makers. Although he was not able to attend university, he’s been able to study administration and accounting to benefit his business,.

The number of people he employs in his workshop has fluctuated over time. For example, in 1995 he had 5 employees. In 2000, he employed 15. In 2012, he has 5 (in addition to himself and his wife, Magdalena). Of the current seven employees, 2 are women.

He purchases his materials once an order has been placed, since silver is expensive (for example, a kilo of silver can cost between USD $1,200-$1,800). He is also careful to use all the silver, and saves and melts down the extra parts (that have been cut out from a design, for example) for reuse.

His designs come from various places. Sometimes he designs the products. Frequently his clients do too. They will send him a drawing of something they’d like, and Fermín will trade drawings back and forth with them until they arrive at a design the client likes and that Fermín can produce.

He’s been in his current workshop since 2000. Prior to moving here, he has worked in workshops first in his mother’s home and later in his father-in-law’s house. His living and working conditions have improved considerably from when he started: he was living and working in a tin shack. Now Fermín has a four-story cement building that continues to serve as both his home and workshop, although the spaces are well-divided.

His dream for the future is to move his living space out of his workshop building and use that space as a jewelry school. He and his wife would like to be able to teach poor people the craft of jewelry making so they can improve their living situations and lives.

Fermín hopes his sons will be involved in the family business as adults but strongly believes they need to discover what makes them happy and do it.

(Above: Fermin pictured with his sons Franco, top, and Aaron, bottom)

Fermín is the secretary of a fair trade organization called APTEC (http://www.aptecperu.com/), the only one in Peru that is formed exclusively of producers. Different product lines are represented, like weavers, clothing, potters, and jewelry.  He’s been part of this group for 3 years and while he is proud of them, he feels like there has been a lot of work without much success so far. Still, he has hope that investing time and resources into this group which will help each of the producers be more successful in the coming years.

His business has been hit hard by the recession. In the last 2 years, he has had to lay off 8 workers. He is hopeful that business will rebound as the worldwide economy improves.

A goal of his is to expand his market and gain more clients. In 2008, he and Magdalena began to travel to the US once a year for a craft fair in Manhattan. They went three times, made many product samples per potential clients’ requests, yet gained only one client. As Magdalena mentioned, they ended 2010 with no money after traveling to the US several times! So while they would love more international clients, they are currently unsure how to accomplish this without losing more money.

When Fermín was asked what he likes most about his work, he offered several examples: How his business has grown in the last 25 years. How he and his employees have been able to support themselves and be successful through fair trade. Seeing his products in stores (like Global Gifts).

Show Time at Manos Amigas

It is show time at Manos Amigas.  Muestras or more literally “shows” is the name for product samples the artisans submit to be considered for the new catalog that goes out to clients.  From December through January artisans bring in the bulk of their muestras which also allows them to be considered for inclusion for a large gift fair in Germany that Manos Amigas has participated in in recent years.  In the past Manos Amigas has generated many new product orders through this fair so it is a good opportunity for the artisans to have their products selected for the fair.

I have had the opportunity to sit in on some of the sessions when artisans have brought their muestras to show Yannina.  It is fun seeing the great variety of products that come in and it has been especially neat for me to see how artisans have incorporated some of the suggestions I made during a training on characteristics of best-selling products I did a few months ago.

When samples are brought in the artisan sits across from Yannina and the items are put out on her desk.  She always compliments the artisan on their good work and exclaims over how nice their items look.  You can tell when she is really excited about a product but even when she is not she shows her appreciation. Manos Amigas really wants to encourage artisans to bring in more product ideas/samples to be considered for the catalog.  But it is a risk to the artisan to do so because they may spend a lot of time and energy creating a new product and then that product may not end up being included in the catalog.  It may be because it is not in line with what Manos Amigas is looking for or the quality may be too low.  However, Manos Amigas does include the great majority of muestras in their catalog but that still doesn’t mean an order will be placed for the item.  In fact, typically only about 10% of what is in the catalog will actually be ordered by a client. 

Manos Amigas has a goal of diversifying its product line beyond the heavy Christmas focus they currently have. During the capacity building training I stressed teacher gifts as one way to achieve this.  This was one artisan's interpretation of that message.  These will be appearing at Global Gifts in April.

 

Yannina works with the artisans by making suggestions for modifications in color, style, and so on to give the product the best chance possible.  In many cases, artisans return with the modifications within a week or so.  It has been fun to see this process in action. Sitting in on many of these sessions I have been asked to offer my opinion as well.  I am honored to be asked and because of my years in the stores I think I can bring a valuable perspective.  But at the same time I feel a great sense of responsibility in offering suggestions because these products represent the livelihood of folks who are living with little or no extra income.  Lack of orders may mean a child has to withdraw from school or a family has to move from a house with running water to one without it.  In one instance, Yannina learned from an artisan that his daughter was going to withdraw from university due to lack of funds.  She asked him about his situation, asked for a letter from the daughter about the importance of her education, and asked him to email her a picture of the entire family.  Later I asked if Manos Amigas was going to help pay the daughter’s tuition.  “He is one of our best artisans,” she said, “right now he has no orders.”  Yes, she was going to help pay the daughter's school fees, at least for a time.  Maurelio came back the next day with his daughter so they could thank Yannina together.

Maurelio in his workshop.

It is fun to see the artisans’ creativity at work in this process.  Often there is a discussion about size, shape, and color.  For example Yannina might say,

·         Those figurines look a little cartoonish in their facial expression. 

·         These sculptures are beautiful but I am not sure if they can sell at that price. 

·         This cow and sheep are too large for that nativity. 

While these are all types of constructive feedback that Yannina give, of course she offers a lot of praise and encouragement as well. 



This represents a "modern day" nativity.  We had a good time talking about who could stand in for the 3 wisemen.  Will this be a popular nativity?  I have no idea, but it certainly is different.  I did believe in it enough to order some for Global Gifts.



This year I understand more muestras have come in than usual.  During the capacity building training we emphasized the importance of continually creating new items.  We said the risk of not creating new items is greater than the risk of creating new items and having them not sell.  Because even a great selling item won’t remain strong forever, their line of products needs to continually be renewed.  It is gratifying to see the increase in muestras this year and I wonder if the training had something to do with it.  Either way, being part of this experience has been educational.  Perhaps even more exciting is that soon many of these products will be available at Global Gifts.  After going through this process, I had to place an order!

 

This fine couple represents another attempt to diversify away from Christmas.  During a training I suggested that figures of couples or families with children are popular items at Global Gifts.  This was one of several items that came in as a result.  You will be able to find it at Global Gifts sometime this spring!





These ceramic eggs will be great for Easter. I hope we will have them in at Global Gifts in time for this year's holiday!



Believing in Fair Trade

From the time I was first introduced to fair trade I thought it was a good idea.  I first learned of the concept when I was living in Northern Ireland in 1999.  Derry, where I was living, became a “Fair Trade Town”.  A special event was held at City Hall and I attended.  There I got to sample fair trade tea, chocolate, and coffee and I heard a brief presentation on what fair trade is all about.  The mix of social mission and business was appealing.  That event had a big impact on me.  It happened right about the same time I needed to choose a topic for my Master’s Thesis.  With a bit of effort in convincing my professors it was a suitable topic, fair trade became the subject of my Thesis.  The research I did in the 6 months or so it took me to complete my paper made me a believer that fair trade was effectively and efficiently providing much needed employment and resources to families and communities in developing countries.  It’s a long story that I won’t go into here but it was through my research that I became introduced to Global Gifts where I am now employed.

Senora Toshinada, Maruca, and Joel swap stories about clients over lunch. 

Though my belief in fair trade has remained strong, it is always nice when I have it reaffirmed.  My recent experience with Manos Amigas has done just that.  During the recent capacity building training that Manos Amigas hosted for their artisan partners, I had a chance to speak with several different people about their work and their thoughts on fair trade.   For lunch one day we all went to a nearby restaurant in Lima.  Alison and I sat with 3 artisans during the meal.  When talking about their business, all three shared stories of clients who treated them badly.  For example, Joel spoke about a woman who bought from them who was very friendly in their initial interactions.  She would ask about his family and about his mother who was ill.  But then when he went to her shop to deliver the order, she would barely acknowledge him and treated him rudely.  In contrast, Manos Amigas helped the family buy medication for his mother when she was near the end of her life.  He was also grateful that Manos Amigas loaned the family money that was later forgiven for a coffin when his mother died.  This sort of giving and assistance is not always a part of fair trade.  But the respect and appreciation for producers it represents is very much a part of fair trade.

Yannina, Director of Manos Amigas, with Senora Toshinado

We also heard stories of mistreatment through lack of payment.  In one case, a group was taken advantage of when they worked with a middleman who delivered products for them. But after he delivered the products and received payment, he ran off with the money rather than paying the group what they had earned.  While these types of stories don’t necessarily represent business as usual in the non-fair trade market, I believe they do represent a vulnerability that the artisans have because they are often quite desperate to take whatever opportunity that may lay before them or at least appear to lay before them.

Yannina and Luigi (a buyer from an Italian fair trade organization) walk to visit several artisan workshops in this neighborhood.

But treating producers with basic respect and dignity is just part of the fair trade equation.  Another critcal contrast is the 50% downpayment that is made when an order is placed by a fair trade buyer.  Sometimes orders are quite large involving thousands of individual pieces to be made.  Not only does the 50% downpayment provide needed income for materials and paying workshop employees, it also provides confidence that the buyer won’t walk out on the deal mid-way through without paying.  When I asked how much non-fair trade buyers would pay in advance for an order, the answer came back “not much”, 10-20% or sometimes nothing at all.

Leonidas stands at the entrance of his home and ceramics workshop.  He has been selling to Manos Amigas for 20 years.

Manos Amigas works with around 87 artisan workshops.   Each workshop has a handful of employees which increases or decreases depending on the level of orders they are receiving.  This means several hundred people (nearly 1,000 during peak times) may be receiving employment through Manos Amigas at any given time.  When I have had the opportunity to talk with some of these folks I will often ask, “Is fair trade important to you?  Does it make much of a difference?  Maybe a little bit or not much?”  Over and over again the person I’m speaking with eyes become big and the look on their face is emphatic, “Yes, it is very important!” they respond. 

It moves me to know that I am part of a community of people, a movement, which is impacting lives and setting a just standard of business through fair trade.  Manos Amigas is one fair trade exporter among a dozen or more significantly sized fair trade businesses working in Peru.  Each business represents a community of varying size of folks who are enjoying being part of the fair trade system.  I would estimate that the reach of that impact is felt by several thousand people in the country of Peru although I can only make a guess.  Artisans like Daniel, exporters like Manos Amigas, importers like Ten Thousand Villages and SERRV, and stores like Global Gifts, and the people who buy these beautifully made products are part of a system of business that respects people and the planet, reaches out to those who lack opportunity, and I believe brings people around the world a bit closer together.

Daniel a ceramics artisan, Yannina an exporter, Luigi an importer, and Sam a store manager represent the chain that is involved with fair trade.  Only missing was Alison, the consumer, who was taking the photo.  Later Luigi asked for another photo to be taken with Simon included as the "future of fair trade".  Could Walmart take this picture?  :)

When I consider the significant impact fair trade is having in Peru and then I imagine the multiplied impact of fair trade throughout the world, I can’t help but be proud of the work we are doing at Global Gifts and the work being done within the fair trade movement.  Within this series of thoughtful transactions that represent fair trade business is a place I am happy to be.

One Month with Manos Amigas

We have now completed just over one month volunteering with Manos Amigas.  It has certainly been a busy  time.  It is hard to know where to start writing.

We arrived at Manos Amigas with a lot of unanswered questions.   What type of work would we be doing?  Were the folks who run Manos Amigas really even that excited about our being there?  Was our work appreciated?  Were we going to have opportunities to work with artisans as well as the administrators of the organization?  These questions swirled in our heads during our initial days and even weeks with Manos Amigas.

Our communication with Manos Amigas before we started was more limited than I would have liked.  Yannina who runs the organization is clearly very busy and we wanted to limit our initial email exchanges as much as we could when we were making our plans to come here.  We got the impression she was busy because there was often a delay of several days or more when we sent an email and we knew she was doing a lot of travelling related to some of the tours Manos Amigas organizes.   So we were really taking a bit of a leap of faith in choosing Manos Amigas as our volunteer destination.   Apparently they felt the same way about us.

Even during our initial emails, Yannina let us know they had not had a lot of luck with past volunteers.  Despite our work experience, despite sending detailed resumes, even though we were recommended by a mutual colleague, it felt as if we were accepted as volunteers somewhat reluctantly.   We have recently heard some of the horror stories about past volunteers which helped us better understand their hesitation.  Early on we decided that we had to prove ourselves as capable and helpful. 

Our first task was helping Manos Amigas with their website.  We had noticed before we left the states that their website was no longer up.  We also were no longer receiving responses to emails we sent Yannina and we thought these two issues might be related.  It turned out they were.  It is a long story but it sounds like because of a dispute with their former web designer, they lost their website address and their email addresses.  By the time we arrived at Manos Amigas, their website had been down for over six weeks although they were able to set up new email addresses before then. 

The first day we started work, Yannina asked if we had experience with websites.  Alison and I both had limited experience in website development and upkeep.  Neither one of us are experienced designers but within a matter of a few days, we were able to get a functioning website up and running for them.  For an organization that ships products to some 21 countries and works with 87 artisan workshops, having a functioning website is critical. 



A screenshot of the new website, www.manos-amigas.com.pe

While Alison has continued to make improvements to their website and began developing their product catalog, I shifted my focus to their annual “remate” or clearance sale.  Each year Manos Amigas holds a sale of their old sample items and of items made for shipment but for one reason or another never shipped.  I was put in charge of managing this sale and Alison provided much needed help with this as well.

Manos Amigas has a nice showroom within their office building/warehouse.  It is filled with natural light and is ideal for displaying products.  However in the showroom they have pieces of plywood set on top of stacks of old wooden crates that they use for display tables.  When I arrived, every flat surface was covered with different types of products.  And under these makeshifts display tables were boxes and boxes of old product, often ceramics that were thrown in the boxes at varying levels of care.  And then I was shown the really big boxes that were full of a LOT MORE stuff that had to be stored in another room because they didn’t fit in the show room.  “All of it” I was told should be put out for the remate.  I kept thinking of the Global Gifts staff and how each year it seems like an impossible task to put all the new holiday merchandise out on the floor in addition to stocking up on regular items for that busy time of year.  That experience served me well here.

In addition to displaying all of this product (more on that later) I was to price it.  About 25% of the product had a price on it and another 25% had a code or SKU but no price and the remaining 50% had neither.  If it had a price, great, with some cleaning it was ready to go.  If there was a code but no price, than I needed to take it into another room, and find the item in their database.  Especially for any Global Gifts staff that may be reading this, this database is an excel spreadsheet that literally is broken into about 15 tabs across the bottom and there are probably close to 40,000 to 50,000 SKU’s in the database.  So it is not necessarily a quick thing to find a sku.  For those items that don’t have a SKU it gets more complicated.  If the item didn’t have the SKU, I was to find a picture of it and the picture would be named with the sku.  Then I could look it up in the database.  To find the picture, I was to look through around 80 different artisan folders on the computer, to see which one of them might have made the item and therefore had the picture of the product I was looking for in their folder.  “Not exactly an efficient process” I thought.

After looking up enough product prices I thought I was getting the hang of what the prices would be without looking them up.  That coupled with the fact that I knew these products were really old and they were motivated to get rid of them made me feel comfortable enough to propose that rather than looking up all these prices (which would take forever) maybe I could just assign prices without looking them up.  After suggesting prices for several items to Yannina, she agreed that would be a good way for me to work going forward.  Things went much quicker from there.

Next came putting these products out for display.  When Mario introduced this project to me he took me to the second level of Manos Amigas which is still under construction.  Picture bare concrete floors and walls, piles of boards and scrap lumber, metal pipes and re bar sticking up out of the floor, sawhorses and other tools scattered around.  "Use any of this for display,” he said, pointing to the construction site material.  Old wooden crates, rough wood boards of varying lengths, a metal pole, rusty mattress springs were all up for grabs.  And it was all covered with a thick layer of dust.



An example of what I started working with.



I had fun rummaging through this material to figure out how to create displays from it.  And I enjoyed putting the product out and making it look the best I could.  It was interesting to open up the numerous old boxes to see what might be inside.  What wasn’t fun was finding many of the boxes were crawling with silverfish or discovering painted gourds full of sawdust from termites or other insects.  Every now and then my hands became so black handling product that I needed to wash them before going on.

A crate with a board on top creates nice levels for a sea of miniatures.

Another photo from the remate



This display of musical instruments was nearly bought out in the first two days :)



The sale has been going on now for a couple of weeks and it seems like it is off to a good start.  People come to shop every now and then.  Some days no one comes.  Mostly just friends of Yannina’s mom come and shop.  It’s a good thing Yannna’s mom has lots of friends.  At one moment there were 5 women all wanting to check out at once and no one seemed to get the concept of a line.  In addition the women were all giving me special instructions (in Spanish) and for a while it got pretty crazy.  “I thought I was going to miss the Christmas rush this year” is what kept going through my head.



A broader view



More is happening but this post is already long so I’ll include more in another post.  We are now feeling like our work is appreciated and we are happy with our choice of volunteering with Manos Amigas.  Tomorrow artisans begin arriving for a capacity building training Manos Amigas is holding.  I’m doing a presentation on what makes a great selling product.  I’ll let you know how it goes.