Microlending

Villagers in eight communities have collaborated with the Foundation to establish revolving loan funds for the construction of improved cattle sheds called cobertizos.  Each shed costs about $300 and  provides shelter and feeding troughs for 8 family cows; 214 sheds have been built to date.

The energy conserved by animals kept warm and dry in these sheds in the cold highland nights increases milk yields, reduces animal mortality and raises family income by an average of 40%. Villagers organize the loan association and determine the rate of interest. Loans are extended for one year. Once all households in the village have had the opportunity to build a cobertizo, the loan fund is put to use for other community projects. 

Sales of dairy, meat, and fiber make up the largest share household income for most rural families in Puno. Animal sheds help increase yields and livestock survival, and raise family income by 40 percent annually.

In the four communities all families in need of a cobertizo have built one and paid back their loans.  Most have used the reconstituted fund to improve eye and respiratory health for their women and children by installing smoke free stoves that send the soot and ashes out of their kitchens. In Chijnaya, the capital has been put to use as part of the down payment on a community tractor, plow and harrow.  Families in Chijnaya and neighboring communities rent this efficient equipment for use in their fields.  The rent goes toward repayment of the seed capital and the equipment loan.

A well administered revolving loan fund empowers a community.  Generations of seed capital are available to use in combination with community labor to meet self-identified needs.  All can participate as long as they keep a good record of repayment, and the record in these communities has been impeccable.  Around the world, microloans have been enormously successful with women entrepreneurs.  These revolving microloans are administered by and available to all.  The humble cobertizos are powerful building blocks toward community well-being and self-respect.  Twenty new communities are waiting to become a part of this project.

Click image to view slideshow.

Artisan Market Access

Woolcraft embroidery is an important part of household economies in highland Peru. In the Foundation’s area of operation in the north and western sectors of Puno, families tend to engage in diverse number of income activities including agriculture, temporary off-farm labor in construction or services, small-scale commerce and services, knitting and embroidery. In some households, villagers still spin, dye, and weave wool fiber from their sheep and alpacas.

The Chijnaya Foundation is a proud vendor of heritage wool crafts from Puno and has supported the efforts of an artisans’ association in the village of Chijnaya to revive traditional embroidery styles that had been abandoned in the 1960s in favor of faster and less elaborate forms that had been used for wholesale to middlemen for sale in low-cost tourist markets near Puno.

Chijnaya art featured at the University of Richmond

On view in the Lora Robins Gallery of Design from Nature, University of Richmond Museums, and the International Gallery, Carole Weinstein International Center, September 16 through December 9, 2011, is the exhibition Achachis y Bordados: Storytelling Embroideries from Chijnaya, Peru.

Click HERE for a video lecture on the exhibition.

Building craft industry stitch by stitch 

In 2006, the association of 110 artisans produced a first run of panoramic embroidery tapestries depicting village life. The small-stitched, un-bordered figures in these fabric murals were put together in narrative form, with the three pachas, or spheres of the universe depicted in lyric landscape form, with the realm of the gods, the wild, and the human world woven into each tapestries.

In 2008, the artisans’ committee applied to show their tapestries in the International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The IFAM is a selective exhibition and attracts collectors from around the world. It has featured the work of artists from over 100 countries, and the Chijnaya artisans were delighted when they received word that they had they would be among the featured artisans.  

The embroideries, which artisans called achachis, a quechua word referring to elders or things traditional, were adapted to several sizes and styles for marketability, and enjoyed robust sales in 2008, 2009, and 2010 at the Folk Art Market. In addition, smaller embroideries and novelties developed by the collective have also been brisk sellers in end-of-year holiday markets, and have found some modest sales in contemporary world craft markets in New Mexico such as Poco a Poco. Contact us here for information on how to buy individual pieces or arrange for a sale in your school, church, or civic organization.

The figures at the top of the tapestry depict the realm of the gods and the wild, the figures in the middle the human world, and the figure at the side depict wildlife and abundant fisheries.

Click photograph to view slideshow.