“Peru is the third country with the highest rate of violence against women in the world. 81,000 women live in vulnerable situations, and 76% of them have already been victims of physical, psychological, or sexual abuse. Most of these women are emotionally and economically dependent on their abusers,” said Valery Zevallos, representative of Estrafalario, a social enterprise that seeks to break this vicious cycle and change this sad reality.
Estrafalario was born as a sustainable fashion project, in which women in vulnerable situations can participate, co-creating products with social impact and ecological and recycled fibers.
“A percentage of the products we sell goes to the Empowerment and Employability program that we developed with our team. We already have 6 points of sale and have divided the program into technical skills and soft skills, which we develop with these women,” said Valery, during the Kunan awards ceremony for social entrepreneurship, where they were finalists.
The program started with 6 inmates from the Chorrillos prison, now they have 16 women and in June they included 3 young mothers from the Inabif in Salamanca, aged between 13 and 18 years.
Part of their work involves evaluating their emotional and technical skills, providing training and support, and helping them develop their talents with specialized instructors. “We co-create products where they can demonstrate what they’ve learned in the program, and they also receive an employability course so they can be hired later by partner companies,” Valery explained.
She added that by marketing the products, they have managed to increase their monthly income by 60%, enabling these women to be independent and able to support their households, regaining confidence and faith in themselves and transforming their lives.
“Thanks to these products and our customers, our project is profitable. This year we have grown 70% in sales and we want to replicate the program in different parts of the country, with the help of institutions like Inabif and Inpe.”
Estrafalario has big dreams; they want to establish themselves in Peru and also export their high-quality, high-value products. They also aim to expand their distribution channels and increase their media visibility to attract more customers.
“Our potential customers are 8 million economically active women. We want to include 30 more women in at-risk situations within six months and continue demonstrating that through an Estrafalario garment we can make a positive impact on our society and unite the hearts and dreams of women with different realities but who have the same right to be valued, respected and recognized, thus creating a community of struggle and development, full of opportunities to confront violence against women and gender inequality.”
Originally published in: Sustainable Fashion