by Joyce Gallardo

Out of the complex answer to this poignant question was born El Proyecto Social Q’ewar, where healing could take place in a salutary, respectful, and humane working environment. El Proyecto would become an antidote to the common social ailments of extreme poverty, alcoholism, and malnutrition that plague the small towns and villages in the Province of Quispicanchi, Peru, to which Andahuaylillas, home of the Q’ewar Social Project, belongs.  In this harsh survival culture, high in the Andes Mountains 12,000 feet above sea level, families often live in small, windowless, smoke-filled rooms with earthen floors and walls of mud and adobe--rooms that serve as bedroom, kitchen, and yard for the animals.

The therapeutic process of doll making    
The Project was initiated seven years ago by Peruvian native Julio Herrera Burgos, former high school art and sculpture teacher at the Waldorf School in Lima, Peru and his wife, Evelina Lucila (Lucy)  Terrazas, in response to the poverty and homelessness in their community of Andahuaylillas. They started a doll-making workshop in their home and selected women to train to make Waldorf-inspired dolls who were single or homeless mothers without economic support for their families, women who had suffered domestic violence, and young women living in high-risk situations. A therapeutic process was created as four indigenous women made these dolls in their own likeness—beautiful brown-skinned, dark-eyed, black-haired Peruvian dolls, dressed in the typical clothing of their country. The doll making was designed to express the dignity of the human being and thus became a healing activity for the women, who were learning to make the dolls out of their own creativity and imagination. Later on, they would make dolls with blue eyes, red, brown, and blonde hair, and lighter colored skin, as well chocolate-skinned, dark-eyed dolls; the workshop would become a source of multi-ethnic dolls--archetypal images of humankind.  For most of these women, this was the first opportunity they had to learn new skills and to express their innate creativity in a humane and respectful working environment that would help them earn money to support their families.

New hope was born, which brought a sense of self-esteem and pride in their work. The traditional indigenous skills of shepherding alpaca and sheep, carding, spinning, plant dyeing, back strap loom weaving, knitting, and embroidery were fostered and honored.  The doll makers washed, carded and spun the wool used for dolls’ hair, sweaters, and shoes; they sewed and knitted all the distinctive clothes.  Tea-dyed cotton knit gave a warm color to the dolls’ skin.  All natural fibers were used and dolls were stuffed with pure sheep’s wool, while the hair was made from alpaca yarn.  Hand dyed fibers made from indigenous plants colored the clothing.

The first four dolls made at the Q’ewar Project traveled to the United States with Margret Daniels, who during her 70th birthday trip to Peru met the group and at their request took the dolls back to sell.  Friends were very receptive, and JoAnne Dennee, early childhood educator from the Lake Champlain Waldorf School in Vermont. travelled to Q’ewar in response to their request for marketing help.  At the same time, she committed to later taking up the needs of the children and, eventually, the men.  Interest in the dolls grew, and from the small group of four women, Q’ewar has grown since 2002 to employ over 100 families. The dolls are now sold all over the United States and abroad.  As the need to build and expand the workshop grew, the Q’ewar Project moved uphill from the village and some of the husbands of the women who were able in construction were hired to help build the new facilities. The Project has become a place of refuge for the more than 125 women, children and men who walk up the steep hill from the village each day and pass through the big green doors to work, study, and play here.

Wawa Munakuy
While the doll makers are working in the many-windowed, airy workshops, their young children are cared for at the project’s newly-constructed Waldorf-inspired nursery-kindergarten called Wawa Munakuy (pronounced Wa’wa Moo nah’ koo wee) meaning “for the love of the children” in Quechua, the indigenous language spoken by the women.  The beautiful new two-story building was built thanks to increasing doll sales and two generous grants from a Swiss and NJ foundation. The second story of the school will serve as a temporary transitional refuge for women and children suffering from domestic violence and for visiting teachers.  Vilma, one of the doll makers, told us,  “The Q’ewar Project has helped so many people.  Here I know that I can work in a tranquil environment and my children are well cared for.  It is not like this in other jobs.  I cannot bring children with me to work.” In the afternoon, after-school care is provided, along with tutoring and help with homework.

 A spiritual intention
The spiritual intention for the founding of the Q’ewar Project—the development of a social initiative based on compassion, brotherhood, respect and love—is imbued with the impulse of Anthroposophy. (1) “We seek to balance out the social injustices that are present in the Peruvian society.  In this respect, we recognize the importance of a revitalization of the patterns of the ancestral Quechua culture of community life--the way of  “Ayni” (reciprocity) and “Mink’a” (collective work for the greater good of all).  The conscious practice of this spiritual intention and the recognition of the importance of  “Ayni” and “Mink’a” to community life has fostered a sense of responsibility to the collective goals and to the well being of each other amongst the women and men who work here and the children who play and study here,” Julio told me.   

This sense of responsibility to the collective goals and the well being of all amongst the workers and children of the Project was reflected in a later conversation with Vilma, “Julio and Lucy have always told us that we needed to work together like a family and that is why I very proudly call them Papa Julio and Mama Lucy, since I do not have a mother and father.  I feel that everyone has to support each other like a family, not only to be concerned for my own family or my own situation.  When it rains, it rains for everyone.  When the sun shines, it shines for everyone.”

Working with the teachers and the children
During the month I spent at the Q’ewar Project in the Spring of 2009 I was immersed in the daily working and challenges of the project.  Each day was full and rewarding and brought a myriad of new tasks to accomplish.  I had been invited to work with the four teachers of Wawa Munakuy, who are participating in the Waldorf Early Childhood Teacher Training in South America.  These women, all residents of Andahuaylillas and former public school teachers, were becoming familiar with the Waldorf pedagogy as applied to the education of the young child, but needed guidance in implementing these practices in their daily work with the children. During the beginning years of the Project, mentoring was offered by JoAnne and many activities at Wawa Munakuy were put in place;  communication, however, had been encumbered by a language difference and by translators who were not themselves Waldorf teachers.

Monday is ‘bread day’ and the children, with their teachers, prepare and bake in the wood-fired adobe bread oven enough whole wheat bread to feed each family.  Wednesday is ‘bathing day’ and the small children are bathed in tubs outdoors under the warmth of the morning sun in mountain spring water that’s been heated by solar energy.  A solar-heated hot water bath house for the children, women, and men was installed last year, thanks to a donation from Germany.  The caregivers wash and rinse the children with loving, gentle hands and song.  Warmly wrapped in fluffy hooded towels, the children, with shining, smiling faces, are rubbed dry sitting beside the wheat field where nodding golden seed heads gaily greet them. Their hair has been shampooed, combed and de-liced, and the little girls’ long, dark hair will be braided by the nimble fingers of the caregivers.

Establishing a healthy rhythm  
I was struck by the sense of community with which the children were surrounded.  Each morning as the younger children came through the big green doors with their mothers, they were greeted by warm smiles and a cheerful “Buenos dias, wawas!” (wawa is the Quechua word for children) from the many workers.  This place is like a second home to these little ones, who are one and a half to three and a half years old; their mothers came to work here each day while they were pregnant with the same little ones.  

As we worked together with the teachers to establish a healthy rhythm, each morning after greeting the children we would walk through the biodynamic gardens and along the edge of the chacra (corn field) where we collected ears of corn wrapped in dry leaves to make corn dollies, past the peach and avocado trees, stopping to pick flowers, or to examine seed pods that had fallen to the ground, and play in the shade of el arbol grande (the big sheltering tree) in the flower garden that overlooked the terraced wheat field. One morning little Christian, who was just three, dreamily watched the sunlight dancing on the leaves of the tree.  He hugged its trunk and discovered that he could pull himself up to a crook where two branches met.  There he sat, legs dangling, just two feet off the ground, waving at us and grinning gaily at his accomplishment.

Later, skipping happily up the steep, uneven path to the herb garden, the children carried little baskets in which they would collect chamomile or mint for tea to drink with their hot organic morning meal.  The table in the kindergarten was set and decorated with flowers from the garden, the candle was lit, and a simple blessing was sung in Spanish:

                        
                         O, angel mio, guardian tan fino,          
                         Noche y dia, tarde y temprano,
                         Llevame a la puerta del cielo,
                         O angel mio.

‘Oh, angel mine, guardian so fine, night and day, early and late, lead me until I reach heaven’s gate, Oh, angel mine.’ followed by a verse:  

                        Tierra, esto tu gracia nos dio,
                        Sol esto tu luz maduro.
                        Sol y tierra bien amados,
                        Nunca sereis olvidados.  

‘Earth, who gives to us this food, sun who makes it ripe and good,  Sun and Earth you are both well loved, and never will you be forgotten.’

The children ate heartily of the warm food.  Shortly after the meal, one of the mothers who was working nearby came in to change her child’s diaper.  The two younger children, who were tucked into their little beds in the corner of the room, were soon sleeping peacefully. The older children played indoors and out.  Songs and finger games, simple nature crafts, and free play filled the rest of the morning. The mothers appeared at lunch and siesta time, tucked their little ones into mantas and carried them home safely on their backs down the long, steep hill.  “Adios!  Hasta la tarde!”

The after-school program
After lunch and siesta the older children, who attended school in the  village, began arriving. Their homework load is a concern for them and for their parents, many of whom are unable to help their children due to their own lack of education.  Thus they look to the teachers at Wawa Munakuy for support.  Physical activity and purposeful movement before starting homework is encouraged, and carefully thought-out activities enhance gross motor development and balance in the children.  Jump rope and circle games are joyful alternatives to sitting behind a desk reading and writing.  The children are drawn to   the big llama rope spirals which have been laid out on the ground, and walk forward and backward, in and out, through each spiral path.   This can be a real challenge for some.  A ‘ladder’ of bamboo sticks which has been laid out invites hopping, side-stepping, forward and backward stepping, hopping on one foot.  Soon the giggles and laughter of children engaged in purposeful and playful movement fill  the courtyard.