giving back

Chaska Hill ...

Peru is my second home, and I love to spend time traveling and visiting with the people I meet along the way.  Often I visit remote villages in the Andes. 

A few years ago in a village called Calca, I found a group of young women in difficult circumstances.  To help them, I started a charitable initiative in Calca called Chaska Hill.  We are small, but we have big goals. 

Our objectives are to:

•  Strengthen the economic position of the women who live in rural communities like Calca, and expand their leadership roles in the village.

•  Help them find sustainable work in their own communities rather than having to move away to coffee plantations or to the cities to work as domestics.

•  Help them preserve their traditional crafts of knitting and weaving while teaching them to use these skill in a financially viable way.

•  Help them gain access to medicine and improve their nutrition.

•  Help the women’s children continue to stay in school rather than being obliged at an early age to work for their own food.

We begin with hospitality, an important tenet of Peruvian culture.  The women are welcomed into our home and offered safe and comfortable shelter for themselves and their children.  Our meal times are family affairs.  We all share in preparing the food for our little community.

Learning follows hospitality.  It is our goal to coach these women on life skills -- from nutrition to health issues to household finances.  We want to help them to learn to care for themselves and their families independently. 

In addition, we help the women build on their already considerable skills.  We teach them new knitting and weaving techniques, and to make products that will find a ready market in the United States.  Artists from Peru and the U.S. visit us to share their talents, expanding our group’s repertoire of skills. 

Chaska Hill Products ...

Chaska Hill products are all handcrafted with indigenous materials and natural dyes with careful attention to fine details and quality.  Our products are sold in the U.S. under the Chaska Hill label at artisan fairs, home shows and select boutiques. 

Some of the latest products we are making are felted wool handbags and scarves.  Our handbags are made in beautiful colors with ruffled details and accented with vintage or glass buttons.  Our "polka dot" felted scarves are made using a Japanese technique.  Garbanzo beans are tied into a knit scarf before the felting process.  As felting actually shrinks the wool, wherever a bean was placed a little poof of wool remains, a charming 3-d polka dot!  The scarves are sophisticated and contemporary and are offered in an array of natural colors.

Be a Part of It ...

I invite visiting artists from the U.S. to come to Calca and teach their skills to these great women.  Volunteers are welcome to join me on my visits to Peru and to meet and work with these inspiring young women.  Come teach what you know! There is an opportunity for you to make a difference in these women’s lives!