About Us

Who We Are: “Mujeres Unidas” is an orga­ni­za­tion that pro­vides voca­tion­al train­ing, child­care, and social pro­gram­ming for women in one of Lima, Peru’s poor­est com­mu­ni­ties. Since its incep­tion in 2010, the women have con­struct­ed a com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter and own the prop­er­ty that serves the 450 girls and women liv­ing in the community.

Our Mis­sion State­ment: To give an oppor­tu­ni­ty to the com­mu­ni­ty of girls, women, and moth­ers, to learn, train, devel­op, and exchange ideas to move forward.

Our Objec­tives: 1) to pro­vide voca­tion­al train­ing to women and girls in the com­mu­ni­ty, in the form of sewing, knit­ting, and business/accounting/computer class­es; 2) to pro­vide much need­ed social pro­grams for women and girls in the com­mu­ni­ty such as coun­sel­ing, fit­ness, and edu­ca­tion 3) to cre­ate more uni­ty in the com­mu­ni­ty by orga­niz­ing com­mu­ni­ty­wide events such as a year­ly vol­ley­ball tournament.

The Com­mu­ni­ty of Vir­gen de La Can­de­lar­ia: The com­mu­ni­ty of Vir­gen de La Can­de­lar­ia is locat­ed in Vil­la Maria del Tri­un­fo, Lima, and includes around 450 fam­i­lies.  The girls and women of Mujeres Unidas con­duct­ed a sur­vey to assess the needs in the com­mu­ni­ty.  They found that the aver­age house­hold income is between 300–600 soles per month (approx­i­mate­ly $120-$220), the major­i­ty of the fam­i­lies are migrants to the city from rur­al areas, and have very basic edu­ca­tion- most have not com­plet­ed sec­ondary school.  The com­mu­ni­ty does not have run­ning water, sewage, a clin­ic, or paved streets.  They live on land that was for­mer­ly a garbage dump for Lima.

Our Approach: The girls and women of Mujeres Unidas began self-orga­niz­ing them­selves in July 2010, using a pure­ly grass­roots and par­tic­i­pa­to­ry process, where the women lead and make all the deci­sions regard­ing the orga­ni­za­tion. The idea is to strength­en and build off of the skills the girls and women already obtain and for­mal­ize these skills so that they are marketable.

Our Suc­cess: To date, through var­i­ous fundrais­ing projects such as “pol­ladas,” (com­mu­ni­ty fundrais­ers), sell­ing food and clothes, and solicit­ed dona­tions, they raised 13,750 soles (approx­i­mate­ly $5000) to buy a plot of land and con­struct a com­mu­ni­ty cen­ter.  The girls and women have imple­ment­ed a day­care and two work­shops- knit­ting and sewing; and have orga­nized a com­mu­ni­ty­wide vol­ley­ball tournament.