Tejidos Turmanye is the result of an initiative of your mothers from the children's feeding programme in Huaraz, Peru run by Arco Iris. Their shared vision was to improve their living conditions and, with support of Arco Iris, they embarked on this venture in September 2003. At this time, all they needed were two machines, one for sewing and one for weaving. A few months later they acquired another two machines as a result of a donation to Arco Iris.
In 2007 a loom was added to the workshop; another new experience for the mothers involved. Seeing how far we had come, we could not stop there, so we began the search for better resources, approaching international contacs and the private sector with structured, technical proposals. As a result, we have been able to further improve the infrastructure of the project and workshop's capacity.
In September 2008 one of our founding mothers, Margarita Sifuentes, sadly passed away. She used to always say: "It's not good to always wait for help, we should begin something ourselves"; words that often motivated and encouraged the others.
Through perseverance, hard work and continual learning we have now arrived at a place where we can see the fruit of our labour: over 22 mothers who weave fine alpaca fibres at a high standard and receive to international markets. This story of dreams, hope and effort is aptly expressed through our motto: "Tejidos Turmanye: Clothes that bring hope".
