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New partnership with tourism agency to support responsible tourism practices.
In the indigenous communities where Awamaki works, most men work as porters in the tourism industry. This difficult work is a primary source of income for many families, including most of the families of female partner artisans. Many of the men in Quechua villages have deep knowledge of local trekking...
Posed to EmpowerBy Elizabeth Salley, Marketing and Communications Intern “Okay, it´s time for affirmations! Find a partner!” Ginette Collin announces. The room becomes a flurry of movement as the artisans pair up and giggle. At first, some of the women are quiet, but within the next few minutes, the meeting...
by Gillian Fitzpatrick, Monitoring & Evaluation Intern Three years ago, Awamaki discovered distinct differences in income amongst women in the Patacancha cooperative. Quick to fix the issue, we introduced our rotation system. From the collected income data in 2013 and 2014 of the Patacancha cooperative members, it was shown that...
by Laura Brokaw, Volunteer and Tourist Coordinator A few years ago, Awamaki faced a tough question. Since our founding, we had focused on increasing the women’s income. To do this, we taught the women to make beautiful things, and sold those things to retail stores in the U.S. This made...
By Eryn Ratcliffe, Marketing and Education Volunteer Exciting news for Awamaki! As of May 2, 2014, we have joined the Fair Trade Federation, completing their rigorous membership process. This formally commits us to providing fair wages for the women in the cooperatives with whom we work. Since the founding of...
Keeping Nature Beautiful: A Guide to Sustainable Tourism Awamaki strives to improve the lives of local communities by tackling poverty head on. By creating opportunities in the Peruvian tourism industry, with the homestay program being just one example of this, Awamaki helps families in both built up and rural...
The Benefits of Women’s Empowerment Ripple Far and Wide Women’s empowerment has been the focus of countless social programs, not only for the benefit of women involved, but for the health of an entire nation as well. For years studies have shown that providing women with access to education and...
Meet Awamaki’s Volunteers: Felicia from Washington D.C. Community Needs Assessment Volunteer A: How does your work with Awamaki relate to what you study at home? F: I am studying international development with a concentration in rural development and economic growth. Seeing that Awamaki is trying to reduce poverty through sustainable...
