Yanamilla Prison Project

The Kani team- Katia, Pipo, & Akira

Kani started off the class with a game called the Marshmallow Challenge. The women were divided into teams of four and given four materials- dry spaghetti noodles, one marshmallow, tape, and string, with the goal of creating a structure that would support the marshmallow. The highest marshmallow wins! 

The game was multi-purpose. First, it served as a refresher to yesterday’s class, where Kani discussed the importance of the process in relation to goals. It also asked the women to work together and notice what dynamics emerged. Finally, it began the process of product prototyping (and improving on an existing design) and innovative thinking.  

The women test their marshmallow structures!

 Unfortunately, no team’s marshmallow structure stood the test of gravity, but it was a riot watching the collapse of marshmallow city. After the game, the women went around and discussed their experience and Kani expanded on the goals of the game. They reminded the women of the importance of the process and thinking beyond the highest goal, to rather, the attainable one. They also discussed group dynamics, and finally, design process in relation to competition. For example, only one group used a base for their structure, while the others copied the competition and created sky-high structures with little support. 

Akira discusses business models

Next, Kani discussed the three most common business structures: for profit, non-profit, and social business and considered the pros and cons of each. Interestingly, the women wavered between a non-profit or social business model for their mock company, Kori. Then we moved on to the lifecycle of a product or service, from the initial design, to materials needed (and their costs), production, sales price, and finally meeting client needs. Kani invited a “representative” of Kori to sell Katia a pair of earrings, and together they dissected the needs of the client based on the experience. If you’re starting to feel like this class is thorough then you’re right! 

Katia tries on earrings with a Kori representative

 The class concluded with an in-depth discussion of how to break down costs of a business and product and finding an appropriate retail price. Akira, a math wizard, went through each category of cost- materials, human resources, business expenses, and business taxes. He also broke down the Peruvian minimum wage, and taught the women how to calculate the cost of each product in time, based on how much they wanted to work. Yup, thorough. 

Finally, the women settled on a sale price, which was 7 soles more than they originally calculated. The takeaway? That costing products is an essential part of the business that needs to be done correctly to be profitable! Most importantly, though, is that the women understand the process and see how each step creates a sustainable business.  

The women are incredibly engaged in this course, even more so than I expected. I see this engagement as an engagement in their future. There is a feeling of hope and possibility in the air and, more so, the women are being treated like the competent individuals that they are. These women are intelligent, and they learn quickly, what they need are the resources and the tools to support this intelligence. And that’s exactly what this class is all about. 

What an inspiring day in the prison! Today was the first day of our 3-day business development class, taught by the wonderful team at Kani, Katia, Akira, & Pipo. 

Focusing on the question, “How to start?” when considering starting a business, the team opened with two key questions for the women to ask themselves: What do you like to do? What are your goals? Immediately I knew we had made the right choice in choosing Kani to teach the class. 

Most talks like this in Peru are incredibly one-sided. Often they are taught by an authority figure who preaches at people and rarely are students invited to participate. There is a distinct knowledge divide, the teacher who has the answers, and the students who don’t.

Kani’s version of this class is radically different in that they believe the women have the answers and they are merely guiding the conversation. It doesn’t hurt that the team at Kani started their own social business and have direct experience in the topic, as well as experience being inexperienced. Why is this important? Because it makes them relatable and establishes a genuine rapport with the women. 

During today’s class the women started a mock business, with ideas that came from them. First, Kani walked the women through key questions about their mock business: what products they are going to sell, who is their market, their competition, and what is the personality of the business. The women decided on a business selling jewelry (you can imagine my surprise at this!), for women and girls of all ages. They business’ personality? A woman, age 25-30, who is happy, flirtatious, and likes to dance. Next, the women worked together to picked a name for the business, Kori, which means gold in Quechua. 

The next step was to come up with elements for the mission and vision of Kori. Again, Kani guided the women through a series of questions and together they created the following vision, “To be the first choice for women in Latin America that are looking for high quality jewelry at reasonable prices, while always innovating new designs.” Pretty good, huh?

Finally, Kani walked the women through a goal chart that allowed them to break down specific steps in a process to meet a final end point. This is incredibly useful planning tool and shows the women how to organize the steps necessary in starting a business. 

What I appreciated most about the class is that Kani was realistic about the process. It wasn’t painted in roses they were upfront about it being a long process, with difficulties along the way. They also stressed the importance of building relationships and partnerships with other people and businesses doing similar work. This is very different than the typical model in Peru, where people take a more individualistic approach the business. 

The best part of the day, for me, was after the class, walking with the women back to their cell block. I asked them if they liked the class and they enthusiastically said yes. One woman, the youngest in the class, said to me, “Before my mind was like this,” showing me a hard, balled up fist, “Now, it is like this,” she opened her hand wide, “and it is a lluvia de ideas coming from my mind”. 

lluvia de ideas: literal translation, a rain of ideas, closest english translation, a flood of ideas 

Beach inspired colors, by Marleny

Today’s project was a whimsical spiral earring with a beaded accent that I knew the women would have fun with, since it required lots of color combining- which is their favorite! Some of the new students from yesterday, who moved slower than the others since they weren’t familiar with the basic techniques, finished their Thursday projects and even were able to work on today’s project. 

Sweet yet vibrant, by Antonia

There is a woman in the class who is quite young, 23, and has been in the class only a few times before. She is serving a 7 year sentence and had been in the prison just 2 years. Although enthusiastic, she tends to struggle with some of the techniques, mainly because she isn’t very patient. Today, her earrings came out beautifully and she was very pleased with herself. She showed them to her friend, declaring, “They came out really well!” and made a second pair. 

A funky combo of purple and black, by Karla

I was impressed with how much more patience and care she had this class. She listened to me much closer than before and was more willing to make changes to her work. Towards the end of the class, instead of running off once she finished a project, she stayed and helped clean up the supplies (something only the old timers do). In fact, she neatly packed my entire bag and picked up every spare bead (which are tiny!) rolling around the table. She then took all the trash to throw out. 

It dawned on me that over the past few years I’ve watched her grow up. I’ve noticed a distinct difference in her attitude, one that only comes with age. Although lovely to think that these relationships have that much depth, I am sad to recognize that I will know her into her late twenties. In fact, I will probably see many changes in her attitude and self as she goes from being a youth, barely over 20, to an adult. That is the nature of this work, that there is so much time with the women because their time in the prison is so long.    

Design credit: Original design by Lisa Niven-Kelly

A cheerful rainbow of color, by Elizabeth

I started our mini-jewelry making class today with a group of 8 women, a nice mixture of returning and new women. Today’s earring project was basic/intermediate level, since I knew the class would be mixed, and wanted to be sure it was challenging enough for the old women but easy enough for new women to catch on. 

Green with envy, by Marleny

Earlier this week, I purchased a bag of beautiful bicone beads at the local jewelry store, making sure to pick colors that the returning women enjoy working with. At this point, I know each woman’s individual style and can predict what colors they will choose (we had a good laugh about this today when I went around the table and named each woman and their favorite colors). I was excited to have them work with these beautiful, sparkly beads since quality materials lend themselves to more creative possibilities. Although there are cheaper beads available, I find spending a little bit more on beads that feel special give the women a creative burst of energy. 

A beautiful color scheme by Lucila

Obviously, the women did not disappoint! As you can see from the photos, the women had the opportunity to customize the design and the placement of their beads, as well as chose from gold or silver plated wire. As much as possible, I try to make the designs flexible to encourage the women to think outside of my sample pieces and design for their tastes. This has been one of the biggest challenges of the jewelry making class, and over the years the women have learned to come at each project with their unique perspective. Creativity is a muscle, and the women, like all of us, need the time and space to strengthen it. 

Design credit: These earrings are a modification on a bracelt design by Barb Switzer, www.beadswitzer.com

Board President, Devin, conducts interviews

Welcome to a new series called Quotes from the Women! Last year, Ruraq Maki’s Board President, Devin Montalto, conducted a series of interviews with the women about their involvement in illegal activity and their lives in the prison. Throughout the coming weeks, we will share pieces of our interviews, to help you get a sense the challenges the women face before incarceration and during incarceration. 

One of the questions we are most frequently asked is why the women are incarcerated. The majority are incarcerated for drug trafficking, one of the most common and profitable form of work in this area. But how do these women get involved in trafficking? And why? 

Today we share a fews answers to our interview question: Why did you get involved with drug trafficking?

“I had five kids to educate and I didn’t have enough money to pay for five kids education and my husband was sick, he has stomach cancer. That is why I had to find economic resources to help him get better. [Before I started trafficking] I took care of my house, my kids and my farm. It wasn’t enough because my husband got sick with cancer and I no longer had enough money. Operations here in Peru are very expensive and so is medicine.”  – 50 year old mother of 5, serving a 12 year sentence

“I got involved because I am separated from my child’s father and because I didn’t have any support from my child’s father I had to work to give her the best that I could, to give her what I never had. I went to work at a place in [omitted for confidentiality] where I met a friend and he invited me work in trafficking, to travel, thats how I got involved in that work, its what I did to support my daughter, so that she could get ahead.” – 22 year old, mother of 1, serving an 11 year sentence 

“I am here for drug trafficking, because I didn’t have enough money to educate my children; to send them to school.” – 40 year old, mother of 5, serving a 6 year sentence 

“More than anything I was trying to help my son who is mentally disabled, he needs a medicine…because he has seizures and its very expensive and in that moment when she asked me If I would do it I thought of him and didn’t think clearly, just of him and how I’d be able to buy his medicine. And because of my lack of thinking my children are now alone, my grandfather takes care of them but he is 75 years old and because my son is disable my grandfather has to feed him, bathe him and change his diapers, its too much for him.” – 33 year old, mother of 5, serving a 7 year sentence 

“Its my husbands fault that I’m here, I was always studying nothing more and when I committed to him he was already involved. I was in the car with him, when he was busted and so they thought I was one of the bosses, same as him, because I was with him in the car with the drugs they didn’t believe that I wasn’t involved.” – 33 year old, mother of 2, serving a 12 year sentence