“Peru is the third country with the highest level of violence against women in the world. 81,000 women live in a vulnerable situation and 76% of them have already been victims of physical, psychological or sexual aggression and the majority of these women depend emotionally and financially on their aggressors”, said Valery Zevallos, representative of Estrafalario, a business that seeks to break this vicious circle and change this sad reality.

Estrafalario was born as a sustainable fashion project, in which women in a vulnerable situation can participate, co-creating products with a social impact and ecological and recycled fibers.

“A percentage of the products we sell is directed towards the Empowerment and Employability program that we have developed with our team. We already have 6 points of sale and we have divided the program into technical skills and soft skills, which we develop with these women”, said Valery, within the framework of the Kunan award for social entrepreneurship, in which they were finalists.

The program began with 6 inmates from the Chorrillos prison, now they already have 16 women and in June they included 3 young mothers from Inabif de Salamanca, aged between 13 and 18 years.

Part of the work they do consists of evaluating their emotional and technical skills, giving them training and accompaniment, and helping them develop their talents with specialized teachers. "We co-create products in which they can demonstrate what they have learned in the program and also receive an employability course to help them and later they can be employed in partner companies" Valery said.

She added that they market the products, managing to increase their monthly income by 60%, making these women able to be independent and capable of supporting their homes, regaining confidence and faith in themselves and transforming their lives.

“Thanks to these products and the clients, 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 such as Inabif and Inpe”.

Estrafalario's dream is big, they want to position themselves in Peru but also manage to export their products that are of high quality and great value. Likewise, they seek to expand their distribution channels and have greater media visibility to achieve more clients.

“Our potential clients are 8 million women, economically active, we want to achieve, within a period of half a year, include 30 more women who are in risk situations and continue to demonstrate that through an Estrafalario garment we can make a positive impact in 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 and thus make a community of struggle and development, full of opportunities to confront violence against women and violence against women. gender inequality”.