Team AGF just back from the field!

After over 14 hours of traveling, the AGF Team finally made it to Ampay, Peru to meet Project HOME's newest artisan, Rufina Baccera. With a wide smile, Rufina stood outside the one-room mud-brick home she shares with her husband, three children and parents. As wide-eyed children ran around the rare "gringos" in town, Rufina spoke to Elizabeth about opportunity and how she desperately is seeking a way to improve her life and the lives of her loved ones.

Rufina wants what any mother wants for her children; an education, food in their stomachs and a safe place to rest their heads at night. Unlike the opportunity to which much of the U.S. has access, Rufina's community is essentially jobless. Despite the poor living conditions and the difficult way of life, Rufina's tiny frame is bursting with the energy to succeed. Her eyes light up when she talks about her work and how Project HOME will help her use the skills she has to improve the standard of living in her village. The steady income offered through Project HOME will equate to long-standing change.

With one workspace, Rufina is able to make hundreds of bracelets per month and offer employment to neighbors who are struggling. She dreams of doing the work she loves while creating opportunities for those around her. She tells Elizabeth, it infuses a sense of self and dignity in herself and she looks forward to sharing that in her community.

Over the next six months, A Global Friendship and Rufina will work together to create and bring to market four new designs which will be sold at over 100 different retailers across the U.S. and the Caribbean. AGF will sponsor a workplace in Pisac to provide ten people in her village with sustainable jobs and stable, fair wages. With the kind of determination already present in Rufina, Team AGF hopes to see her small business expand in the next 12 months. This growing opportunity in Rufina's village represents a small step towards fighting poverty.

The profits from the Peru Collection will go towards fixing the only pipe, which supplies running water, in the village's primary school, as well as supporting the workspace and additional artisans Rufina will employ.

Together, we can make the world a more beautiful place. Check back for the launch of this collection.

Rufina (Project HOME's newest artisan) and her daughter, Gladys

Gladys and Rufina's husband Jesus, who helps her make jewelry to grow her business

 Ampay, Peru