Development of a women's cooperative in Pulingui
Introduction
Because of the constant migration of the men of the community to the
cities in search of work and of the youth to educate themselves only
the women have remained in Pulingui carrying on the agricultural work
and as shepherdesses to the flocks. In spite of this enormous contribution
and even being members of the community Association not one women is
among the elected leaders and women do not have organisational space
that can be considered their own within the community.
The women of the Association Pulingui San Pablo propose the creation of a handicraft co-operative. The women will be trained to spin, dye and weave artefacts from the wool produced by their own sheep. There will also be courses to foster their socio-organizational skills. The goal at the end of three years is to have the co-operative self-financing. The women already produce the wool manually and send it to Riobamba to be woven into ponchos. There are persons in the community who know how to operate a loom. The idea is to mechanise the process of spinning and weaving in order to supply the community with wool products and then to make products for sale to the national and international tourists that visit the place.
The
training sessions will be in workshops according to the availability
of time of the women. With the different themes treated, it is hoped
that the position and motivation of the women, both in their home and
in the community, will improve and in this way lead to a progressive
increase in self-esteem. The training embarks 3 levels: the technical
(spinning, dyeing and weaving); the socio-organizational (functions,
leadership, values, organisational tools); and training in administration
and accounting. This training will begin in June of 1997 with the active
participation of a promoter to facilitate the sessions who will be an
expert in gender and development issues, have worked extensively with
indigenous women and will be responsible for accompanying the technical
part of the project while imparting the socio-organizational and gender
courses.
The gender focus will be incorporated into the three levels of training to be received with the goal of improving the women's economy, and particularly her position. The principal objective is to create conscience in both the women and men of the organisation, of the importance that women may participate equally in the training and production projects which generate income. The effort is directed at both the men and women of the Association, creating the women's own spaces where they can grow, to be able later to enter into the public arena with more security and confidence in themselves. This confidence in what they know and what they can do is often not even recognised by themselves, nor by their families, nor the community and society in which they are immersed.
October 1997: Achievements to Date
- a group of 40 women has been formed and are meeting weekly
- the women have learned to run well their own meetings
- the women have chosen three of their group to be trained as health promoters
- the women have selected six of the group to be trained in weaving using looms
- the women have defined the rules by which the group will operated
- the women have constructed the first building to house the cuys
- three women were elected to constitute the Administrative Council of the Village Bank
- an evaluation was positive in addressing the issues causing the problems experienced to date.
October 1997: Problems to Date
- amongst the group of women there is disinterest because they feel obliged to go
- younger women, children of the older members who are interested in participating are denied access to the program
- one of the men leaders has been interfering in the meetings of the women
- decisions taken in the meetings afterwards are not respected by the group
- some women have been receiving privileges in that their daughters participate
- there is a need to define the statues of the group and work towards getting it legal status
InterConnection
