Columbans help women in Peru learn a trade and self-respect in the face of crushing poverty.
By Fr. Ed O’Connell

In the 33 years since I arrived in Peru, the purchasing power of the ordinary people has dropped by 75 percent. For example, teachers’ salaries today are, at best, $310 a month. This amount will only buy one-quarter of what it would have bought in 1973.

Wages in the public sector have been kept strictly under control; trade unions can no longer defend their worker rights or wages; many factories have closed, particularly in the cotton trade; and there are high levels of unemployment, especially among workers older than 40, due to downsizing.

Cosmetology is one of many classes Peruvian women can take at the Warmi Huasi center. Other courses include commercial cooking, party decorations, home decorations, knitting, sewing, tailoring, jewellery, making souvenirs and
making handbags and wallets.

Many young people feel frustrated and desperate. It has resulted in a massive exodus: more than 2 million people have left Peru in the past 20 years. In a recent survey in Lima, 70 percent said they would emigrate tomorrow if they had the chance. Most picked the United States as their top preference.

Since 1999, I have lived in the midst of this situation in Lima in a large parish called Our Lady of the Missions, where most of the people are among those living in poverty or extreme poverty. So how, over these years, can I try to bring the Good News to the poor in a globalized setting that has brought us cellular phones and Internet cafés but little else?

A Better Life Through Work
At a series of meetings in 2000 with women of the parish’s Christian communities, they named unemployment and family violence as their principle enemies. We decided to tackle these issues by setting up a women and family center called Warmi Huasi, which means “Women’s Place” in the indigenous Quechua language.

For the past six years, we have operated educational and income-generating programs to help women get into the workplace, mostly in the service industry.

With the help of a small nongovernmental organization called Solidaridad para el Desarrollo, (“Solidarity for Development”), more than 100 women each year since 2000 have participated in these courses, and this has resulted in five hairdressers’ shops, a soda stall, two small restaurants and two women who now teach the skills they learned.

For most projects, the women organize themselves into small groups to set up their businesses. Another network of women hires out their labor at a better rate to contractors in the cloth industry.

Apart from the business ventures, many women have their own experiences of making and selling products, thus improving their family economy and quality of life. This has brought them to new levels of self-confidence and greater respect from their families.

Maria Bazalar, married with three children, studied for two years with Warmi Huasi. She first took sewing classes, then handicraft skills and commercial cooking.

“I have my little business now in a busy street of Lima selling my cakes, jellies and sweets and, at the same time, tea towels, curtains and cushions,” she said. “I have taken a course to know how to run a business and now have the confidence to promote my goods in the marketplace.”

Sra Rosa Mulatillo, married with children, found the self-esteem classes essential to help her overcome her lack of confidence. After she took classes in commercial cooking, she said, “I learned how to make chocolates and with the encouragement of my family, I have begun to sell them with great success. I am now saving up to buy pots and pans so I can make pies and cakes to sell. It is a great help as my husband has no work at the moment.”

Testimonies such as these, of which there are hundreds more, encourage me to continue with these programs. This year we have nearly 200 women taking part in 10 courses in our parish.

Our efforts are just a small contribution toward solving the problem of poverty, but they help spread the Good News to these families while helping stem the flow of economic migrants.

Columban Father Ed O’Connell was ordained in 1973 and has spent most of his life as a missionary in Peru.