This morning we traveled with Minga's country rep to Martha Constante's house in Ibarra. When her husband retired thirty years ago from the police force, she set up her business making hand knit sweaters in her home. There are now hundreds of women who have benefited from this decision. She says she keeps thinking about retiring, but the same thing keeps her working that got her started--the women in financial need who come to her door begging for work.
They have two daughters, one of whom works with her mother in the business. Anita's degree is in engineering. They joke that she is an engineer in an international business (Martha exports to many countries in Europe and to Japan as well as the domestic and South American market. The other, Aleja, is still in school. I found myself liking this woman more and more as she described the many challenges they face--the government taxes any yarn that is made from fibers that are not natural, and then they add insult to injury by buying up all the yarn available in Ecuador and exporting it to China, according to Martha. There is also the matter of copyright. Ecuador has no copyright laws. Their designs are always being copied, and they then have to create another sweater. They make about 30 new designs per year. Materials are triple what they were 30 years ago, but they can't raise their prices that much or they'd be priced out of the market. Sometimes the profit they make on a sweater is so small, they can't do more than pay the artisans.
Martha is an organizing genius. She has a file of 1,500 names of women who have knitted in their homes in remote villages for her. (The business started with only three knitters). She wants to give as much work to as many people as she can. When orders are low, she breaks them into very small lots so that each woman can have something to eat. She has a book with everyone's name in it, how much material they have been given, what the completion date is to be, pickup date, and how much the finished sweaters weighed, as well as the number of sweaters made and the payment for each one. It is big, fat, and hand-written.
She brings the materials to each village to the supervisor she has trained, shows the supervisor how to make the design, and the supervisor takes care of getting materials to the women in her village, quality control of the finished work, and collecting them for Martha and her daughter (they both drive out to the different villages in different cars, to cover as much area as possible.) They bring them back to their home where Martha and one other woman take care of all the finishing--zippers, buttons, tags, etc.
The day we were there, a tiny woman, Guillermina, who Martha says is her oldest and shortest worker and her friend because she has worked with her the longest, brought her finished sweaters in to be weighed (they have learned to weigh the wool when they drop it off and again when the sweaters return, to avoid supplying materials which don't get knitted into sweaters for them). About three feet high, Guillermina sparkled, which is the only conceivable word to describe her. She has to be in her seventies!
Martha is really serious about giving work to women in need. She prefaces everything by saying, "This is not for my sake--this is for the women." Sometimes she doesn't have enough money for gas to get out to the villages to deliver materials and pick up sweaters. This is a big challenge for her to keep the business going.
In addition to providing work for women in need, Martha and her daughter rescue stray or injured dogs. Martha has 20 of them on her property. They are well cared for, and she tries to find homes for them all, but she cannot bear to leave them in the sorry state they were in when she found them. One little darling followed us up and downstairs. She was not in the big pens, Martha said, because she was smaller than all the others and she was afraid they would pick on her.
She has such a big heart that she can't bear to see anyone in need. In spite of the many and difficult hurdles she must get over every day, her motto and watchword is "siempre adelante." Always forward. Anita remarks that her mother is quite "terca"--stubborn, and can hardly be coaxed to rest. This occasioned a discussion about taking care of yourself as well as others so that you can continue to care for others. She knows this, but it's hard when so much need arrives on her doorstep, ringing the bell. She intends to go on doing this work as long as possible because it is so important.
When we asked for advice she would give to anyone starting a business like hers, she says you have to love the women. The challenges are huge, but the rewards are just as great when you can help them succeed in life and care for their families.
Her husband, Jorje, is in his seventies. He drove us (in a mildly terrifying fashion) up to the big lake behind Ibarra, to the new park built from the old airstrip and back to the city center for lunch. He is as cheerful and as generous as Martha. Although Martha is younger than I am, I found her very inspiring. It's important not to quit in this work, not to stop trying to make a difference. Yes, it is hard, but it is making a difference for so many people, for whom the extra few dollars mean survival. I'm inspired to keep pushing forward. You never know, you see, if you quit, whether you would have succeeded if you had just kept on for one more day. Siempre adelante, mis amigos, siempre adelante.
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