We visited the ceramic workshop that belongs to Luciano Choque Mama and Veronica Herrera Auccapure during
our learning tour to Peru in February. The workshop is called Taller de Ceramica Señor de Huanca “SHE” and is located on a hillside high above the city of Cusco.
Luciano and Veronica are a husband-and-wife team that has been making ceramics for 28 years, 20 of them at the current location. They have been working on building and improving their home-workshop for the past eight years. They have three children, one daughter and two sons. All of them are in school in Cusco, and Veronica told us that they are in good schools because they have been able to earn a good, regular income from their ceramic production.
Luciano and Veronica have worked with Manos Amigas, one of our artisan supplier groups in Peru, for 15 years. They told us they love working with Yannina Meza at Manos Amigas because she pays them a 50% interest-free advance on all orders, pays them promptly when the order is completed and helps with quality control and training when they need it.
We asked why advances and prompt payment are so important them. Luciano said this is critical to their business because he cannot go to a local bank to get a personal or small business loan. He is not allowed into the bank because he comes from a poor part of town, does not have a formal education, and does not have enough collateral to back up a loan. His only alternative is to borrow from a local money-lender who charges 6% interest per month. This amounts to an annual percentage rate of more than 100%.
He said he probably would never be able to fully repay a loan at that rate and would always be in debt. He would not have been able to borrow enough to improve his workshop and home. He would not be able to do business in the export market because he would not have enough money to buy raw materials (clay, paints), equipment (kiln, tools) and pay wages to his two hired workers.
Yannina added that Manos Amigas can only afford to pay advances to artisans like Luciano and Veronica because fair trade organizations like Ten Thousand Villages pay advances when they place an order with Manos Amigas.
Luciano and Veronica, with the help of their two hired workers, Helario and David, make miniature ceramic bunnies in a basket for Ten Thousand Villages. They sell ceramic products directly to customers in Cusco and Lima and to export customers through Manos Amigas. Luciano and Veronica obviously enjoy working together and were proud to show us around their newly improved but still-in-progress home and workshop.
It was good to see the wonderful rapport they have with Yannina of Manos Amigas. By doing fair trade business with Luciano and Veronica, we are helping them, and their workers, to enjoy a good place to live and work and to afford a good education for their children. It’s wonderful to have fair-trade colleagues in Cusco who we can call our good friends.
Doug Dirks works in public relations at the corporate office of Ten Thousand Villages.