Two Peruvian ventures that empower women and fight violence

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.

From Lambayeque and Áncash, these young Peruvians seek gender equality in the country. Their social ventures have been rewarded for empowering women and for their struggle to eradicate gender violence.

Gender violence is a reality that affects millions of women in Peru every day. According to the Demographic and Family Health Survey (ENDES) 2018, 63% of Peruvian women were victims of violence ever perpetrated by the husband or partner. If we talk about gender equity, the picture is still bad. According to the 2018 report of the World Economic Forum, there is a 32% average gender gap in the world that could disappear in a minimum of 108 years.

With this problem on the table, Madeleine Camones and Natalia Arbildo decided to act to change the situation of Peruvian women. For this reason, their social ventures were among the 10 winners of the ninth edition of UPC Change Protagonists. Next, learn how they are making a positive change in their regions.

Awajkuna: Socio-economic empowerment of women in Ancash

In Peru, women earn, on average, 572 soles less than men. This gap widens between 45 years and older and also in the rural sector, where they earn 42% less than them, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Informatics (INEI).

To help close this gap in Áncash, Madeleine Camones created Awajkuna, a social enterprise that seeks the socioeconomic empowerment of women in vulnerable conditions, promoting their employment as weavers.

“We empower women who come from a circle of violence, who have no education, who cannot read or write, who earn below the poverty line or who have no work experience,” she says.

To achieve this, first, they provide workshops on soft skills such as leadership, teamwork and emotional intelligence. To do this, they have alliances with psychologists and a group of clowns from Mission Smile Green Noses (Huaraz headquarters), who work with laughter therapy. Similarly, they include workshops on women's rights and family planning.

"We have impacted around 40 women from the San Miguel urbanization, in the Shancayán neighborhood. Now, we are in the Huaraz prison doing the same job with 35 inmates." 

Madeleine Camones

Awajkuna is a Quechua word that means “those who weave”, so in the second part of the work, they develop weaving and embroidery workshops. The products they create are varied, from flowers and woven keychains to cloth bags, pashminas and purses, which are put on sale in two allied stores: Biotienda and Makis Organic Spa, thus, driving the insertion of women in the market labor and help them achieve economic independence.

"When you empower a woman, you also do it with her whole family." 

Madeleine Camones

"At first it was not easy because when we called them for soft skills workshops, they did not understand what it would do for them," he emphasizes. Everything improved when they realized that combining the fabric with the workshops was more attractive to them. "Women from 17 to 68 years old have participated," says Madeleine, who continues to work to expand entrepreneurship.

Because of her enormous work in women's resilience and empowerment, this year she was chosen as the protagonist of the UPC Change. On this experience, he says that "it has opened the doors for many people to see us and has helped us find new allies." Young people like her are encouraged to “undertake from the heart, making a fair trade and treatment. Do everything with passion, but when they fall it will be difficult to get up, ”he adds.

The women of Áncash receive workshops in soft skills and also weaving workshops thanks to Awajkuna.

The figures of feminicide in the country are alarming; In 2018 alone, 146 women murdered by gender were registered and, in 2019, we already exceeded that figure, according to data from the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations. In addition, thousands of women are victims of physical, psychological and patrimonial violence every day, including street harassment.

From Lambayeque, Natalia Arbildo thought about taking action to change this reality, that's why she created Killa Peru, a volunteer specialized in gender equity and violence prevention issues, which strengthens citizen participation and contributes to the training of young people as agents of change for the development of social projects.

“With Ni Una menos we realized that there were protests, that it was a real problem, but there were no permanent training spaces to empower and raise awareness about this issue,” he says. Thus the project was born, whose name, Killa, is a Quechua word that means ‘Luna’ and represents the strength of women.

"Young people and citizens in general have a great responsibility to fight against violence against women. The solution goes through society." 

Natalia Arbildo

In volunteer school, young people learn about equity; how to act before a complaint, development of legal procedures, psychological approach to violence and development of social projects. Once trained, they are part of the social project called "Equality in your school", aimed at schools in vulnerable areas in Lambayeque, where "the same trained volunteers display all their knowledge with public school students."

In addition to this, the organization has two other axes of action: (a) political and social advocacy to promote citizen participation and (b) services, which are workshops and talks on gender equity for the general public, which It helps the sustainability of the project. Currently, they have a network of 62 volunteers between 18 and 30 years old, consisting of lawyers, psychologists, communicators and sociologists, mainly.

"In the future, they have the projection of doing e-learning courses and their biggest goal is to create a home for women victims of violence."

For his great work, Killa Peru has been recognized as the UPC Change Protagonist. For Natalia, this experience has helped her meet other social entrepreneurs. “You generally think you are alone, but in the program I have been able to meet social entrepreneurs from all over Peru. That has been the best, knowing that there are more dreamers like me, ”she says excitedly.

In Killa Peru, young people learn about equity, how to act on a complaint, psychological approach to violence and development of social projects.

Through projects such as Madeleine and Natalia, and their recognition as Protagonists of Change, the UPC reaffirms its commitment to society and young social entrepreneurs who seek to transcend in their communities, allowing them to access an important network of contacts, as well as to powerful training and mentoring, which will open new doors for your projects, leading them towards a new level of demand and innovation.

This article was written and published in Spanish and has been translated into English via Google Translate. Click here to read the original article.