Peru
Our centre in Arequipa, Peru, is housed in a beautiful old building we’ve remodelled to include crafts training spaces, a fair-trade shop in which to sell the artisans’ work, and a new cafe which we opened in December 2023.
Here we provide training for people with physical disabilities in high-quality jewellery and textiles, and alsotraining for young people who are deaf in hospitality skills, screen printing, mosaics and sewn textiles too. Our physically disabled artisans come to the Artizan centre once a week to receive training and materials, plus an opportunity for meeting up with their friends and colleagues. For many of them, it may be the only time they leave the house, so this is a vital opportunity for some social interaction, fun and fellowship. They then use the skills, equipment and materials we’ve given them, to work from home, as this is much easier for them than travelling to a place of work each day. We pay the artisans every week for the work they’ve done, allowing them to support themselves and their families with dignity and pride in their work.
The centre also includes a wonderful cafe, entirely staffed by people who are deaf, which serves a variety of delicious freshly baked cakes, scones, soups, paninis, home-made lasagnas and vegetarian options, plus of course superb coffees and teas. It’s surely the only cafe in Peru where you can sample English-styles scones with thick whipped cream, jam and of course a pot of Yorkshire Tea, whilst enjoying the spectacular views from our roof terrace of El Misti snow-capped volcano on the horizon.
The cafe is providing a vital opportunity for our trainees to learn all the skills associated with working in hospitality, whilst simultaneously helping to transform attitudes towards people with disabilities in the local community, as customers witness how capable and employable they are. It’s a place of work and wonder, a beacon of light and hope in the community.
We would love to welcome you!
After 4 years of fundraising, we’ve already purchased a beautiful old building in Arequipa to house the centre, and have refurbished the spaces to a high standard. The cafe space has a large downstairs area and a roof top terrace with incredible views of the snow-capped volcanoes on the horizon.
Artizan Peru
People who are deaf in Peru are among the poorest and most vulnerable in their society, excluded from employment due to the stigma of having a disability.
Most peruvians who are deaf don’t even finish school because they cannot afford to, or they live too far away from the very few schools for the deaf. The vast majority are unemployed or receive lower than minimum wage. Their life is a daily struggle of trying to understand and be understood, as almost no-one knows any sign language. They are often looked down upon by hearing society and live in the poorest parts of the cities, travelling long distances to seek work, usually to no avail, consigning them to a life of poverty.
Ibeth and her young son are both profoundly deaf. Ibeth is now an integral part of our centre in Arequipa where she not only works in the cafe but also works to create beautiful hand crafted textile products and has designed our new range of beautiful bags. This will finally allow them to support themselves and their 2 children with dignity and pride.
Support Artizan Peru
We would love to have more support to help with core costs and training materials as the cafe becomes established however. To support this work, along with all the other work that we do in the UK, Ecuador and Peru, please make a general donation to Artizan International by clicking the donate button.