COMMUNITY Development PROJECTS
Using the profit earned from Q’ente’s textile sales, we help coordinate projects in each of the communities, which are designed to help improve the quality of life in the community or to help the weaving association accomplish its goals.
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Q’ente facilitates a number of projects and initiatives that support communities in the Peruvian Andes to revitalize their traditional cultural practices while sustaining their economy and the environment. Some community development projects we have supported include:
Nueva Esperanza Weaving Centre, Parobamba (2016-)
With funding from SLA Summit, a conference at McGill University focusing on social entrepreneurship in Latin America, Mosqoy has partnered with Nueva Esperanza (Parobamba’s Weaving Association) to purchase land and build a communal weaving centre. Here, the weavers can spin, dye, and weave year-round away from the harsh elements, as well as receive guests and tourists to host workshops and sell their textiles directly. In this space, Nueva Esperanza is also creating a propagation garden for important dye plants of the region that are becoming increasingly challenging to access in the wild. The project began in 2016 and is currently in development.
Image by Jérémie Pierre
Solar-powered lights, Mapacho River Valley (2013)
With financial support from US Aid, interested families in Parobamba, Bombom, and Pitukiska received solar-operated lights and chargers at highly subsidized rates.
Elementary school library, Q’enqo
(2011-2013)
Renovation of an existing building in the community of Q’enqo was carried out by a team of Mosqoy scholarship students. Once the space was renovated and furnished, it was ready to receive books! The inauguration of the library was on March 5th, 2012. It now serves as a library, classroom, and dining hall for the students of Q’enqo’s elementary school, depending on the time of day and day of the week, as well as the local tutors available to staff the library. Funding for this project was obtained through an amazing relationship with a group of grade three students at Battalion Park School in Calgary, Alberta.
Legal registration (2012)
Several of the weaving communities we partner with do not have access to legal registration, due to language, educational, and economic barriers, as well as transportation difficulties. Legal registration as a community asociación is highly valuable for weaving cooperatives, especially those whose primary membership are women, because it allows members to vote on community matters, apply for funding, and sell products directly without intermediaries. Essentially, registration empowers women with more power and voice, and gives those who are part of the association more autonomy and financial independence. Mosqoy held community workshops in 2012 to explain the legal process and answer questions, then spent the following year acting as the legal intermediary, working with community members and lawyers to register each weaving association that was interested in registration. Mosqoy continues to aid each of its partnering associations with maintenance of legal registration and questions regarding legal needs.
Kitchen & toilet improvements, Amaru (2011)
Amaru is a community 40 kilometers above Pisac, in an anti-GMO region known as Parque de la Papa. Amaru has successfully established a community-based turismo vivencial (experiential tourism) system. The profits from Amaru’s textile sales were invested to improve kitchens for the weavers’ houses, with proper ventilation systems to reduce pulmonary disease, and to purchase dishes and cupboards for families participating in the turismo vivencial program. Additionally, profits from the weavings contributed to building compostable toilets for several members of the association.
Optometry campaign, Mapacho River Valley (2010)
Community members in the Mapacho River Valley (Parobamba, Bombom, and Pitukiska) who experienced problems with their eyes or eyesight were taken to a non-profit clinic in the Sacred Valley where they each had their eyes examined by volunteer optometrists at the Kausay Wasi Health Clinic, based in Coya, Peru. Each person who needed them received a pair of reading glasses and sunglasses, and one woman received further treatment for a more serious eye condition.
Floor Looms, Amaru (2007)
Amaru wished to purchase floor looms to weave some larger products that do not require fine designs (i.e. carpets), thus giving weavers more time to dedicate to the finer quality weavings that require backstrap looms. This adaptation of the weaving tradition was a choice by the community members, which they felt would aid in the revitalization and continuance of their weaving tradition, especially given increased pressures and demands on their time.