Keeping Their Heads Above the Water:

How Our Peruvian Partners are Coping (and What You Can Do to Help)

By Ellie McLellan, WAR, Int’l Intern
and Bethany Winkel, WAR, Int’l Staff Writer

The worst storms to hit Peru in nearly twenty years have drenched the nation since December, and with the spring rainy season, flooding has risen to crisis proportions. Though huaicos—heavy rain which brings flooding and mudslides—are a normal occurrence in the Andes Mountain regions, it has been a long time since they have been this catastrophic. So far this spring it is estimated that there have been about six hundred of these flash floods, nearly ten times as many as Peru normally gets in a year (Peruvian Times).

Flooding has caused bridges to collapse and roads to become impassible in many places, hampering relief efforts and affecting coastal highways and city streets alike. The Pan-American Highway North, which connects all of coastal Peru, has sustained significant damage. Repairs to the transportation infrastructure alone are expected to take two to three years and could cost the country as much as $1 billion (Los Angeles Times-). According to various sources, the flooding has destroyed an estimated 29,000 houses and damaged over 145,000 properties, including hundreds of hospitals, thousands of schools, and an estimated 62,500 acres’ worth of crops damage. Another $3.1 billion in lost productivity puts the country in severe economic crisis. Peruvian economists have put reconstruction costs at more than $6 billion.

Of even greater concern, of course, is the personal cost to the people of Peru. By April 1, the estimated death toll from this natural disaster had risen to over one hundred, while nearly 700,000 people have been displaced. In addition to dealing with significant losses—homes, possessions, businesses, and even loved ones—families are also at risk from contaminated drinking water, insect-borne illnesses, and exposure to the elements. And it is not over yet. While there has been a brief respite in the flooding near the end of March, the heavy rains are forecast to continue through April.

Among the many affected by the flooding are the women and families employed by Women At Risk, International (WAR, Int’l)’s three partnering organizations in Peru. Café Femenino, a community of female coffee growers, points out that this time of year is already a “lean time” for its growers, who count on the upcoming harvest season for their profits. However, those profits will likely be significantly diminished by the damage to crops and roads. A partnering foundation is helping to raise emergency funds and provide food packages to Café Femenino women and families in two hard-hit regions.

Peruvian Designs, which markets toys, ornaments, and decorative items made by at-risk families in the Andes Mountains, reports that many of its artisans have been impacted by water shortages, damage to their homes, and travel restrictions. The basket makers have suffered the greatest losses, as most have seen their entire inventory of product and supplies destroyed. The flooding has also brought swarms of mosquitos in greater numbers than anyone can remember, putting children and the elderly at risk. To help alleviate this risk, Peruvian Designs is working to get mosquito nets to its artisan communities.

Like Peruvian Designs, Blossom Inspirations works directly with local artisans who create ornaments, toys, and decorative items. Many of these artisans are struggling to maintain their livelihood in the wake of the flood damage. Blossom is actively participating in relief efforts by donating fifty percent of all its sales in March and April to help provide essential food, water, and medicines to families and communities affected by the flooding.

How can you help? There are two effective ways you can partner with WAR, Int’l to help the Peruvian organizations we serve bring relief to the people of their country. First, you can support our Peruvian partners by purchasing their products, which are featured this month in the WAR Chest Boutique and on our website. Unique products handmade by Peruvian artisans include stuffed animals made from alpaca Fur; delightful hand-knit finger puppets; whimsical painted ornaments; and beautiful, functional, intricately carved gourd birdhouses. Our Café Femenino Coffee, which is organic as well as fair trade, comes in both whole-bean and ground varieties. Your purchase of these products helps sustain artisans and coffee growers struggling to recover from this catastrophe.

You can also help our Peru relief efforts by donating to WAR, Int’l’s Rescue 911 fund. Created out of a need to have immediate funds available, this fund allows us to come to the aid of our partners in emergency situations, including disaster relief. WAR, Int’l is using a portion of this fund to aid our partners in their flood relief efforts.

As the Peruvian people help each other through this national crisis, WAR, Int’l, is pleased to be able to play a small role in the relief efforts. Thank you for joining us in this “rescue” effort as we team up with our Peruvian partners to bring needed aid to the people of their country.

Be Bold for a Change

Across the globe, March 8 is celebrated as International Women’s Day. This celebration of women can serve as a great reminder to appreciate the women in your life and all they have done for you. However, International Women’s Day is not just about appreciating what women have done. It is, and always has been, a day for women to come together to make life better for one another.

This sense of solidarity and need for change is what inspired the first Women’s Day. It began in 1908 with suffragettes marching on the streets of New York City, protesting for equal rights, and the following year, National Women’s Day was declared in the United States. It gained international recognition in 1910, with women from over seventeen countries agreeing to observe a day to emphasize the fight for equal rights. In 1975, March 8 was officially designated by The United Nations as International Women’s Day. Organizers have selected yearly themes since 1996, ranging from ending hunger for rural women to ending violence against women.

The theme for 2017 is about making a change in the world. This year’s slogan, “Be Bold for Change,” encourages us to do something in the name of women around the world—especially something we might not usually do. The International Women’s Day website suggests actions such as calling out instances when women are excluded, reinforcing and supporting women’s triumphs, and encouraging women to further their education.

At Women At Risk, International, we are working to support and empower women every day of the year. Our partnering safehouses, both international and here in the United States, rescue and restore at-risk and wounded women by giving them a safe place to heal while providing counseling, education, and skill training. Our vocational training and microenterprise partners give at-risk women the opportunity to make their own living, empowering them to safely support themselves and avoid exploitation. Educational and outreach programs in the United States and abroad give women who want to better their situation the power to do so.

This March 8, consider what you can do to help women around the world. Find a way to be bold for change—perhaps through supporting or volunteering with WAR, Int’l. We wish all women around the world a very happy International Women’s Day!

Beyond Fair Trade

Checking labels has never felt so guilt-driven.

by Meredith Sweet | WAR, Int’l intern

It used to be that people never questioned the ethics of the companies from which they purchased products. We assumed—if we even thought about it at all—that every industry, from clothing to food, was treating its suppliers with fairness and dignity. But in recent years, consumer awareness has been raised as one news article after another has told a different story: large corporations habitually oppressing indigenous populations for the sole purpose of making more money. These days, most consumers are trying to buy things a little more ethically.

The Fair Trade movement, which has been around since the 1950s and began to take hold in the U.S. in the early 2000s, emphasizes supporting individuals and communities by providing equitable wages and safe working conditions. Fair Trade products, often demarcated by a shiny “Fair Trade Certified” sticker, can receive verification from a number of different corporations, the most prominent being the World Fair Trade Organization, Fair Trade International, and Fair Trade USA.

Yet as admirable as the Fair Trade movement is, it still leaves something to be desired: a human connection. At Women at Risk, International, we don’t merely market beautiful products for an ethical cause; we reach out to women both nationally and internationally to offer them lives of dignity, hope, and value. We call this concept “Beyond Fair Trade.”

Selling products that are Beyond Fair Trade means that our partners offer more than equitable wages and safe working conditions—they offer lives of dignity and self-sustainability through holistic programs that provide physical, emotional, spiritual, and economic support.

For example, in addition to receiving a full day’s wage, women in our partnering safehouses also receive counseling, health care, and child care, along with vocational training and education. Those in our partnering microenterprise programs may receive health care, educational scholarships for themselves and/or their children, and micro-loans or grants to begin their own businesses. Many of our partners base wages on the average salary of a local elementary schoolteacher, placing the workers’ income levels well above what others may earn in their line of work. Described as an “empowerment wage,” this allows women to support themselves and their families, break negative cycles, and create lasting change.

Thanks to generous donations and dedicated volunteers, WAR, Int’l funnels at least ninety percent of its profit from product sales back into domestic and international programs. The artisans who create our products come from difficult circumstances around the world: at-risk mothers in the Caribbean sew beautiful bags while their daughters attend school, Ugandan widows create beads and buttons to support their families, and sex trafficking survivors in Thailand spend their afternoons making jewelry. Each woman, no matter her situation, receives empowerment and support through our partnering programs.

October is Fair Trade month, and we want to celebrate that with you. Here’s how you can help us spread the word about the advantages to shopping regular Fair Trade and Beyond Fair Trade:

Visit one of our local boutiques – Purchasing our Beyond Fair Trade products lets women know that their work is valuable. Bring friends and family to shop at our two stores in west Michigan, or make purchases online using our store website.
Host your own party or event – Increasing awareness and product sales is essential to empowering the rescued and at-risk. $300 in party sales can sustain a woman in an international safehouse for one month!
Volunteer at WAR, Int’l Headquarters or events – Giving your time to help those in need grants us the ability to reach more people around the globe.
Enjoy a beverage or snack at our Tea Trade Café – Helping can be as simple as drinking a cup of coffee. Each purchase at the café, located next to our Wyoming, MI, boutique, helps fund our domestic and international programs. Featuring certified Fair Trade tea and coffee along with baked goods, the Tea Trade Café also serves as a training ground for women in our local program who desire to learn barista and business skills. Join us in supporting the community and providing circles of protection around wounded women. Each purchase helps fund our domestic and international programs.

This October, remember that Fair Trade (and Beyond) doesn’t end with corporations: its success depends on you, the consumer. Don’t stick to just reading labels – use your purchasing power to buy Fair Trade and Beyond Fair Trade, impacting women across the world and providing them with economic growth and hope for a sustainable future.

*Note: While our tea, coffee, chocolate, and a few other items are certified Fair Trade, most of our products cannot be certified. This is only because we cannot control the sources of the materials that our partners use. However, we can say with confidence that each of our partners operates on the basic fair-trade principle of empowering rather than exploiting workers and that all of our products go “Beyond Fair Trade”!

Updated October 2019 | Originally posted October 2016

Running Toward Healing

Thousands of women in Mexico are exploited in the thriving underground sex industry every year. Because of police negligence and corruption, the high levels of poverty, and the tremendous amount of women in at-risk situations, Mexico has become one of the world’s top trafficking locations. But among the horrific and traumatic experiences that haunt these women, there emerge stories of triumph through the trials, offering hope for improving the trafficking situation in Mexico.

Norma Bastidas has such a story, one of enduring hardships and finding hope. When she was eleven years old, Bastidas’ father passed away and an uncle took advantage of the destitute family, eventually raping Bastidas. At the age of nineteen, she was lured away from her home by a modeling agency that promised her a glittering career abroad. Needing an escape from her poverty and memories of abuse, she found the job too good to be true. As it turns out, it was. There was no job and Bastidas was quickly sold into the sex trade, frequently being drugged, beaten, and raped.

But her story doesn’t end there.

Bastidas was eventually rescued from her slavery and was able to rebuild her life. She moved to Canada, married, and had two sons. However, recovering from the pain of the past was not easy, and her new life lent no relief from experiencing hardship. Her marriage failed, her oldest son was diagnosed with an incurable eye disease that would leave him blind, and she was unable to escape the memories and shame of being sold to the highest bidder. Needing a way to channel the stress caused by her past and present, Bastidas started running. She soon discovered that she had great talent in the sport, eventually becoming an ultra-marathon runner. Devoting herself to running, Bastidas accepted challenge after challenge, competing in over a hundred races. In 2009, she became the fastest female endurance runner in history as she finished a grueling seven-continent marathon in only seven months. She later completed a 2,600 mile run from her home in Vancouver to her hometown in Mexico. Bastidas’ greatest accomplishment, however, was achieved in 2014 when she swam, biked, and ran over 3,700 miles from Cancun to Washington, D.C., shattering the world record for the longest triathlon in history.

Not only does Bastidas run to heal and cope with her trauma and stress, but she also runs to raise awareness and support for survivors of human trafficking. She wants the world to see what former victims can accomplish even in the face of the horrors they experience. She runs to empower and give a voice to those who have been silenced by sexual exploitation and violence. During the last two miles of her record-setting triathlon, a number of sex trafficking victims ran alongside Bastidas to the finish line, while others waited for her at the end to congratulate her and show their appreciation and support.

While Norma Bastidas’ story is one of hardship and trauma, it is also one of hope and perseverance. She continues to run and compete, raising awareness for victims of trafficking as well as inspiring those around her with her dedication and determination to not let her past define her.

Women At Risk, International (WAR, int’l) loves to hear these transformational stories and see the triumph that comes out of hardship inspire others. It is our desire to see all the women who come through our programs experience healing and overcome their painful pasts. While they may not become world-record-setting triathlon competitors, their stories are just as powerful and inspirational. And as victims like Norma Bastidas continue to shed light on the trafficking industry and empower others to overcome and fight back, the power of traffickers in countries like Mexico will continue to weaken and the darkness that surrounds the business will continue to diminish.

Earthquake in Ecuador

The deadliest quake in South America since 1999 recently shook Ecuador. Authorities continue to count the dead, and that number has now surpassed 654. Another 58 people have been confirmed missing. Ecuador’s government stated that 113 people were rescued alive immediately following the earthquake on April 16, and currently more than 25,000 people remain in shelters. A partner of WAR, Int’l informed us there was a second earthquake, a 6.2-magnitude quake, in the same area after the initial blow.

Estimates place the damage caused by the earthquake to be nearly $3 billion for the already economically unstable country. Authorities say the reconstruction effort will take years. This week, survivors of the quake have begun to bury their dead as the world watches in horror. The news broke our hearts at WAR, Int’l as we received word that some of the girls in one of our partner’s programs have family and friends on the coast where the quake took place. Many of these girls still wait to hear whether or not their relatives have found adequate shelter.

In the wake of this disaster, we hope you’ll join us in prayer for the nation of Ecuador. Pray for their reco
very – a long road they will walk in the years to come. Pray for the girls in programs so dear to us, that they would hear from relatives and find courage and strength during this time. Our heart aches for the hurting, and it is our desire to come alongside them in their desperate time of need. Right now, we can do that by getting on our knees in prayer for them, and we hope you’ll join us as we pray for the people of Ecuador.