Thoughts and Wishes of Andean Women

Website

www.awamaki.org

How would you cultivate a deeper relationship with the community you’d like to serve?

Awamaki would fund an impact evaluation in Patacancha, the poorest, most remote village in our women’s fair trade cooperative program. We work with 43 indigenous women in Patacancha to provide skills training and access to market for their traditional weavings, so they may earn income for their families. However, we have no idea what women spend the money on. House improvements or food? Vegetables or soda? Do their husbands take it? Do they save? We also don’t know what they think of the program. Do they want to learn to weave modern products in order to sell more and make more money? Or would they rather weave traditional pieces and make less? Do they want to manage the project, or would they rather we did so they could just weave? When we ask them, they always tell us what they think we want to hear. We would cultivate a deeper relationship by holding a series of meetings and anonymous interviews on these issues, with independent Quechua-speaking evaluators.

How would you use the $1,000 to turn your idea into a reality?

We would spend $350 to help hire professional, independent translators and evaluators to explain what we want to know and why, and to conduct meetings and anonymous interviews with the women over the course of several months. (Total cost would be nearly $1000, but we are seeking other funding to help pay for this.)

We would spend $350 on transportation. The community is an hour from our office and there is no public transportation.

We would spend $300 on food for the women at the meetings, and at the interviews. At the meetings we would provide fried chicken, which is all the women’s favorite meal. To thank them for their time in giving interviews, we would give fresh vegetables, rice and milk.

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