Club de Chicas: A New Gaggle of Girls

Yesterday, in the afternoon, the women from the Club de Artesanas returned to complete their projects and I started another class with the Club de Chicas. Like the Club de Artesanas, the Club de Chicas meets twice a week and provides skills training workshops and a workshop space for various activities. The Club de Chicas is open to pre-teen and teenage girls in Independencia. 

In the past years, I’ve worked with the same group of teenage girls. Apparently, these girls are all grown up! Since they are nearly graduated high school, they no longer are participating in the Club de Chicas and instead, I was introduced to a new Club. The new girls are absolutely adorable and a bit younger than the others, ranging from 10-15.

Concentrating on the loop

 We started the class with the same project as the women. Since I didn’t know the Club had changed until I got here, I was worried that the project was too advanced for them. However, in my absence, PAZA hired one of the original Chicas (and my old student) to teach jewelry making classes to the new Chicas. Because of this, the new Chicas were perfectly adept at using the pliers and creating loops. It was so wonderful to see how the skills I taught years ago have been passed on to new students. 

Wrapping the wire

The new Chicas were very engaged in the project and loved the design. One of them immediately put a completed earring in and kept it on for the remainder of the class. Another didn’t have her ears pierced and expressed her disappointment at not being able to wear the earrings. 

Concentrating hard

Dorinda told me that recently the Chicas held an ear piercing day in the workshop room. They used needles and thread to pierce each other’s ears and it took them 2 hours to pierce three ears! One of the Chicas asked for cinnamon to help “calm her anxiety”- it does sound like a nerve racking affair. 

Despite never taking class with me before, the Chicas did a wonderful job with the earrings and are hungry for more projects. It will be fun to get to know these young ones and see how the class evolves with a whole new set of students!

 ————————————————————————————————————————————————–We are still raising money for our Plier Fundraiser! As of today, we have raised enough for 16 sets of pliers. Our goal is 25 and we are only 9 sets short! $15 buys one high quality set of 4 pliers, which will greatly enable the women to create sales-quality jewelry pieces. Currently, 80% of our plier sets in Peru and Bolivia are broken or dysfunctional. Support our fundraiser by donating online!