SARITA

Near Quito, there is an indigenous community living in Panecillo. For many indigenous women, there are still significant barriers to joining the workforce meaning that many women are unable to demonstrate their talents. Sarita was one of these women. Fortunately, Sarita’s passion and ambition meant that she wasn’t willing to settle and she was determined to work. Sarita knew that it was far more common for women in her culture to work in craft, embroidery or making clothes however she wanted to try something different! She now works with Faire and has embraced every opportunity to take on greater responsibility and develop new skills. Faire is delighted that Sarita has developed her computer and administration skills, but more importantly, her confidence has grown immeasurably as a result. Sarita hopes that her determination and desire for a bright future will inspire other indigenous woman.

A Day in the Life of Sarita

My name is Sarita Fuerez, I live in a rural community in Otavalo, called Panecillo, I am 24 years old and I have been working (as an artisan) for 4 years. My day starts when I wake up, take a hot shower, then get dressed for work. My parents have breakfast prepared.

I prepare all the things to go to work, such as taking my agenda, keys, wallet, mask and gloves. At 8:45 am, the car comes to pick them up from home to go to work, because currently we do not have public transportation. We get to work, we take the safety measures established by Faire Collection, I greet all the colleagues and I get things ready to start working.

I order pieces of tagua or seeds and buy materials or supplies for each product of an order. I go to our artisan partners workshop that provides us with tagua materials, to see how they are progressing with the work. I check the colors if they are correct or not, the perforations and other details of the materials. When the materials are ready, I take them out to count and make the raw material report. I distribute the materials to my fellow artisans from the workshop so that they can continue working on the products, be it necklaces, bracelets or earrings. When the products are finished, I do the quality control and if my control does not pass, I return the materials to the artisan so that they can rectify any errors.

The car comes to pick us up again to take us back to the house at 1:15 pm. In the afternoon, when I am at home, I wash and change clothes for something more comfortable and then lunch. Sometimes I have calls from the suppliers and also with the Artisan Director to coordinate any production matter.

In my spare time, I read books or an interesting article that catches my attention at the time. When night came, I help my mother prepare dinner, since we currently have more time to share with the family, we all have dinner together, we talk for a moment and then we go to sleep.

What I like to do the most in my work is to order materials and review how they are progressing, since there is a joy, a satisfaction when all the correct materials arrive, that is, the quantity, the colors, the shape and all the details of the piece, whether in tagua, seed or wood, because I know that if we have a good quality in the raw material, we will have a finished product of equal quality, since they are also products made at the hands of our artisans who They appreciate what they do and therefore I am sure that our clients will also be satisfied.

Well, with this situation of the pandemic that we are all living, for me it has been a unique and sad experience, since it has affected our lives in many areas. Thank God, in terms of my health I am fine, but it has affected my economic area and the area of ​​goals to achieve in my work. As the world economy declined, our clients stopped placing orders and even some canceled us. We had to start working part-time because of this. This news did make me sad, since my mother does not have a job and my father has work only occasionally, but this is not enough to meet all the needs of the home, so I helped them more financially for the expenses of the house, But now with this situation it has limited me in being able to help them as I did before, because I also have a debt in the bank that I am paying every month.

This pandemic has impacted us in our lives, because I had plans, goals and dreams to fulfill, and I know that at least this year or maybe longer I will not be able to achieve them, but I hope that we will receive requests again to continue working and we will gradually improve for the well-being of the company, ours and that of our families.