Building a house for Lola   •   October, 2016

Lola (48 years old) is a mixture of bravery and kindness. Life has given her the big responsibility of being single mother of three beautiful daughters: Sheyla (19), Florcita (11) and Milagros (9) and Lola is doing it great. Florcita and Milagros are one of the best at school and Sheyla is studying at the university to become a Psychologist. This is the best retribution for Lola, all the effort of having two jobs, as cleaning personal in a store and knitter in our group, are worth when she sees her daughters.

Last October 2016, while I was staying in Moquegua working with the group of knitters. I heard Lola’s house burned down while the little Florcita and Milagros where alone at home. Fortunately, the children were good but they lost almost everything. This touched my heart and without knowing exactly what to do, I visited Lola, talk to her and took many pictures. All I knew was that I wanted to tell Lola’s story to help her to recover her house. That is what I did.

We have great customers, committed to Fair Trade practices and to whom people are above money. I knocked a door and thanks to the kindness and huge heart of our client from Canada, we received a donation from them.

With that money, we were able to buy Lola a new pre-made house, a new stove, chairs, clothing for the children and many more things that were special to them like a dining table, it was the first time they had one and they were so happy and grateful.

Since, Lola invested all the money she earns on the education, food and covering the necessities of her daughters.  We wanted to help her to recover from this tragedy. Thanks to the commitment of our clients, we all were able to renew Lola’s hope that life can be beautiful.

Happily shared by: Maria del Pilar Marcapiña, a story with a happy end.