The after school artesanal weaving program sponsored by Forgirlsake in the Peruvian High Andes town of Urubamba was a big success. Three girls, Alicia Riquelme, Elizabeth Sinchi and Maria Teresa Riquelme, all from a remote indigenous village, were given the opportunity to attend high school in Urubamba and teach their traditional weaving skills to their fellow high school students. All three girls finished the school year at the top of their class while the opportunity to socialize with non-indigenous children and act as teachers and class leaders contributed to a dramatic improvement in their self esteem. Alicia Riquelme, the eldest of the three, graduated high school and is going on to study tourism at the local College in Cusco, something that would not have happened without this program. The weaving class itself averaged between 15 and 30 students with a significant number of very dedicated amateur weavers. There is a good possibility that the program will become part of the high school’s mainstream curriculum in the upcoming academic year.

The weaving class took an end of year trip to the hotsprings of Lares and visited an
artesanial shop selling traditional textiles, which was very inspirational for the girls.

Alicia and Maria Teresa standing in front off weavings on display at the
cooperative-run textile shop in Lares, Peru.

In 2010, Forgirlsake raised $9,273 to fund a solar-powered computer lab for the Sega girls’ school in Tanzania. Polly Dolan, President of SEGA (Secondary Education for the Advancement of Girls) recently had a chance to see the Form II students using the computers to write an assignment on “Why I am a Good Leader”. She stated, “I can’t tell you how excited I was to see them using computers! It will really help them for studies, and job marketability in the future.  Thank you so very much again for raising the money for us for the computers — they are wonderful.”

Below is a photograph of the lab, taken by Warren Zelman, when he visited the school in March, 2011.