He likes the videos, he likes being filmed. His name, Mateo 🧑.
The day I met him, he was impeccably dressed in a vest adorned with star figures that he knitted with alpaca yarn 🦙🧶.
Yarn that he himself obtained from his alpacas that he breeds at almost 4,000 meters of altitude. Yarn that he also formed with his hands.
Besides being a man and proudly displaying his knitting skills, what else could make Mateo special?
Well, Mateo is brave and I want to recognize it 👏.
He is brave, not because he knits in a group that is 99% female, nor because he was born with a hearing and speech disability, but because Mateo is responsible for himself.
Mateo knits because he loves to do it, simple as that 💓.
When Mateo knits, he embraces the opportunities that come his way, contributes financially to his house, feels happy and thus creates his own future.
In the southern zone of Peru, men and women learn to knit at a very early age, around 8 years old. Men like Mateo.
The art of hand-knitting is commonly taught by a close relative like a mom, dad, or perhaps an aunt 👨👩👧.
It is transmitted, sometimes, as a form of artistic heritage or an opportunity to generate economic income, in an area of Peru where there are various challenges and shortcomings.
And to face some of these challenges and shortcomings, Fair Trade 🤝 appears as an option, an opportunity, a different way of doing business.
Because in Fair Trade 👉: “people are as important as the sale of their products“.
And how is Fair Trade implemented? What effects or benefits can I see?
I ask the question directly to the artisans I work with and share some of their answers:
✨ Here they do not haggle over the price, they pay me a better price, a fairer price that allows me to earn something and move forward. Even if it is little by little, we are moving forward.
✨ They give me an advance or prompt payment, 50% in advance, other times if there is an emergency, they advance me money to deal with it.
✨ Here I receive faster payment, I finish my knitting and if everything is fine and there is nothing to correct in my knitting, I get paid quickly.
✨ Here I have a refuge, if my husband or I lose the job, I start knitting and he helps me finish the pieces. Then I deliver my products, they pay me quickly and we have money again.
✨ They train us, teach us how to improve the quality of our products.
✨ Clients come to visit us, to get to know us, sometimes they even visit our houses and that makes us happy.
✨ With this job, I can stay at home and look after my children and my husband, otherwise where would I go leaving my children alone at home.
✨ I feel proud of this knitting that I do, I always say: “I knit for Canada, I knit for Japan”.
✨ Due to my health, I can’t find a job easily. With the knitting I can be at home and take care of myself while I knit. I finish knitting and now I have money for my medicines and expenses.
In my role as the leader of a business that was born back in 2006, I made the decision to practice Fair Trade, day by day.
It is my decision to act as a door, a bridge or a window and create those opportunities for brave people like Mateo and the almost 70 artisan women I work with.
It is that decision, the engine to continue when I doubt, when things do not go as planned.
It is that decision, the engine to create the ambassador toys of our brand: Dante 🐘 (the little elephant) and Treja🐏(the little sheep), prioritizing the use of only natural materials in accordance with the principle of Fair Trade to take care of our planet and the environment.
It is that decision, the engine to create our line of alpaca products for the home.
A delicate line of blankets and cushions that not only preserves traditional techniques such as weaving on an artisanal loom but also – sheds light on the rich history of Peru before the Incas – by being inspired by a pre-Inca culture called Chancay in accordance with the principle of the Fair Trade to preserve cultural traditions.
Today, I celebrate 🙌 that there is a way of doing business differently, where people are as important as the products we sell. It exists! and I celebrate that it is called Fair Trade 🤝.
Have you heard about Fair Trade before? Is this your first time? Or maybe you already practice Fair Trade in your business? In all cases, I invite you to share it with pleasure (Maria del Pilar speaking 🙋🏻♀️) I read you.
Sincerely,
Maria del Pilar
