The Tale of a He-bu - A Letter from Hans Valdez Durand of MIA Peru

Dear Ibu Allies,

I am the co-founder of MIA Peru—Mothers in Action—with my mother, America Durand. Our social enterprise is fulfilling two dreams: mine, to connect people with nature, conservation, and sustainability, and my mother’s to help women from communities in the Peruvian Andes, who possess unique knitting skills and want to earn a living for themselves. For many years, I worked in the Amazon jungle, focused on preservation projects with native communities and wildlife. During this time, I realized that the fashion industry was one of the biggest polluters of the planet, and saw most people buying clothing without consideration for how it was made. People consumed clothing made from endangered species, highly-polluting materials, and produced in environments where workers were exploited or abused. I wanted to do the opposite, using sustainable materials, preserving ancient techniques, and providing a living wage to skilled artisans.

(L) MIA Medusa Cardigan on Ibu Model; (R) MIA Peru artisans celebrating the opening of their new workspace with their families. 

We began in 2007, with twelve mothers who loved to knit, selling our pieces by word of mouth. Customers loved our products and orders started growing, so we established MIA Peru as a social enterprise, focused mainly on working with single women. MIA is a fair trade-certified company that guarantees our clients our clean processes and fair payments. Our designs are inspired by nature—some pieces look like shearling, but instead are a hand-knit technique, allowing our customers to look chic and do good for our world. Our dream to make a better planet is conveyed through our tag line: Luxurious Designs for a Conscious Soul. 

There are many challenges in running a small business, and being in Peru adds additional concerns such as the instability of the government and economy. We also face climate challenges with the El Niño currents bringing heat from Ecuador and warming our oceans, as well as bringing heavy rains that create flooding and devastating landslides. Another challenge is preserving our hand-made techniques and designs and creating new ones that are not easily copied and reproduced cheaply by machines in large factories. We are constantly designing new and more elaborate techniques to differentiate ourselves from machine-made knock-offs.

(L) Construction on the new MIA Peru workspace; (R) Hans and America leading a training session for new mothers joining MIA Peru in the new space.

Thanks to Ibu's orders, we have been able to provide consistent work to our mothers and have increased the number of artisans employed by MIA Peru. Currently, we work with over 250 mothers throughout the Peruvian Andes.

We were honored to receive an Ibu Foundation grant to build a center for our mothers in action. The new atelier office includes a workspace where our mothers can meet and knit together, as well as space to store the wools and finished clothes, and do the final quality control before products are shipped to our control center in Lima. Our new center also provides space to train new mothers who want to be part of the MIA Peru family. This has created a beautiful atmosphere, as our mothers traditionally knit from home in their free time, but now thanks to the Ibu Foundation, they are able to knit together and share happy moments and laughter—and we notice that their knits are even more beautiful as a result!

(L) MIA Medusa Cardigan on Ibu Model; (R) MIA Peru artisans celebrating the opening of their new workspace with their families. 

Thank you to all the Ibu Allies for believing in the work of the Ibu Foundation and marketplace—the collections you see from around the world selected by Ibu are chosen not only for their unique beauty or design, but also for the love and passion artisans craft into each piece. Each item has a beautiful energy—sustainably handmade, and possessing a real story that you can wear and spread with love and pride. Each Ibu piece brings positive change and hope to the world—let's all create the change we want to see around us.

Gracias,
Hans Valdez Durand 
Co-Founder, Mia Peru