by Christina Parodi, Marketing & Communications Intern

 

Always sitting behind a stack of knit products, our woman crush this Wednesday is Martha Zuniga, the coordinator of our knitting cooperatives. Born and raised in Rumira, Martha still lives here today where she works directly with the women in our Rumira cooperative.

I watched her lead a meeting with our Puenta Inka knitting cooperative in admiration as she brought the women together and made sure each one was included in the conversation as she described some minor issues with the latest batch of knit scarves. She made sure not to place the blame on any single woman, and held up the scarves identifying where the mistakes were made and the techniques the women could use in the future to not repeat the mistake.

The way Martha works with the women allows a mutual respect to be felt, and all of the women took what she had to say very seriously as she praised them for their successes and critiqued their mistakes. She reminded the women to have the courage to criticize each other’s work and that when they work as a group they create the best quality products.

An expert knitter herself, some of Martha’s products can even be seen in the Awamaki store, and she helps teach some of the women better methods to knit their products. They all know that if they ever need any help with a design, she will be there in the office to work through the problems and master the new technique.

This month marks Martha’s first year with Awamaki where she has been very successful in addressing the needs and concerns of our knitting cooperatives hands on. A mother of three, Martha works very hard with Awamaki to send her children to school and make up for the times that her husband, Carlos, isn’t working. She enjoys living in Rumira for the country feel, being near the farms where she always has access to fresh fruit, veggies and air.

Martha’s work with the knitting cooperatives helps facilitate good relations between them and Awamaki and here in the office we praise her hard work.