Employment EuropeAid EU-Peru Programme for fighting poverty in Metropolitan Lima (PROPOLI) 

EuropeAid
Employment
EU-Peru Programme for fighting poverty in Metropolitan
Lima (PROPOLI) “We hand-knit the sweaters and our
goal is to export 200 sweaters a month
to the United States and Europe"
EC Partner Ministry of Women's
Issues and Social
Development
(Government of Peru)
Facts and Figures A total budget of €12
million (EC
contribution: 75%)
Operates in 10
districts in
Metropolitan Lima
Project started in 2003
and ended in June
2008
In addition to Emma
Cárdenas, another 492
people received
grants, subsidies and
assistance for
Business Initiatives in
2005
52% of selected
projects were
submitted by women
Emma Cárdenas, 53, produces
handmade alpaca sweaters (Labor
Complex for Disabled People)
Context The PROPOLI programme has found its strategic partners in the fight against
poverty in the local governments of 10 districts of Metropolitan Lima. They play
a key role in the design and management of social programmes, as well as in
the implementation of active plans for the districts' economic development.
Objective To contribute to the social and economic integration of lower-income
families by incorporating them into development processes.
To develop capacities by analysing the situation and identifying problems of
the target group, thereby facilitating the learning process and the
elaboration of solutions.
To decrease the structural inequalities that contribute to political and
socio-economic marginalization.
Impact The "Business Initiative Fund" (FIE) financed the creation of 780 micro
enterprises in the sector of production, services and trade.
Close to 10.000 micro enterprises received training, consultancy and
technical assistance for their development through 'Bono', a component of
the PROPOLI programme.
The programme "Entreprising Women" allowed 700 women to engage in
trade activities, notably through trade fairs.
For more information: http://www.propoli.org
MDG 1
Employment
EU-Peru Programme for fighting poverty in Metropolitan Lima
(PROPOLI) Emma Cárdenas' story
Seated at a round wooden table that takes up most of the space in the
small room, eight women of varying ages chat and laugh non-stop as
they expertly knit alpaca wool sweaters. They are part of a larger group
of 50 who have been brought together by Emma Cárdenas to produce
handmade sweaters for export. The 50 women gather each afternoon in
the facilities of the Labor Complex for Disabled People (Cecolamin), in
Lima's Villa El Salvador district, to knit sweaters that will be sold in
shops in Europe and the United States. Some of the women are
accompanied by their children, who run around while the sweaters take
shape on the knitting needles. Adjusting the dark glasses she always
wears because of her blindness, though never pausing for a second in
her knitting, Cárdenas answers a question that has not been asked, but
which she has heard many times before: "You don't need to see the
knit; you can knit only through touching". Cárdenas not only knits, but
also helps skin the alpaca wool. She emphasizes that "everything here
is handmade". It is the work of craftspeople that makes it so valuable.
This is why our goal is to export". Emma says that the first step after
receiving approval of the project and financing from PROPOLI's
Business Initiative Fund (FIE) was selecting the future knitters and
training them. Next came the sweaters. "We provide the knitters with
raw materials and pay them for the final product", she says. The third
step is to find export markets, "because we don't sell anything in Peru,
everything will be sold outside the country". With her contagious
optimism, Cárdenas says that doors in Europe and the United States
are already opening for the group's sweaters.
Emma Cárdenas
EuropeAid