IBD in Peru
by Alejandro Pardo, MBA 2008
When I signed up for IBD, I had already heard some amazing stories about the program and was really excited to find out not only where I was going to go, but also with whom I was working. After meeting my team—some of them for the first time—and finding out that our final destination was Peru, we jumped right into the project.
Our goal: building a business plan and a marketing strategy for Mothers-In-Action (MIA), a small group of alpaca textile artisans.
Our first obstacle: Alpaca? Al-whatta? Some research was really needed! And so, weekly calls were scheduled with our client in Peru.
Finally, after four months of research, the team landed in Peru for four amazing weeks. Arriving one week early to explore the country a bit, we decided to split up, Jenn and Aaron going to Puno and Lake Titicaca, and Liesl and I going to Cuzco and Machu-Picchu. During this time, we finally saw live alpacas! After walking every single tourist market, we felt alpaca-textile savvy.
The team converged in Lima, and we met America, our client and also the head of the organization. We stayed at her house for a couple of days before moving into downtown Lima where we met her family and reviewed the company and its products. Our fist week in Lima was packed with interviews, including yarn-producers, manufacturers, retailers and NGOs, but at the same time we also got to enjoy Lima. We met with Javier, our classmate from Peru as well as our other classmates Luke, Kurt and Paul - in Lima working on a non-IBD project. We tried Pisco sours and ate tons of ceviche.
At the very end of that week, our US client and team sponsor for the trip, Nancy, decided to met us in Lima and join us for a week on our "adventure" to Huancayo. Huancayo is a small town seven hours away by car from Lima, really famous for its handcrafts - from hand-knitted alpaca textiles to “mate burilados” (carved gourds). It is also the place were most of MIA’s knitters live (all of them mothers), knitting to support their families. Here, the time had come to meet our real “clients”, the women who were expecting us to make recommendations and who would actually benefit from the project.
The day after we arrived in Huancayo, all of the approximately 25 women greeted us in one of their houses. They set a special table for us and cooked an amazing lunch with local traditional dishes. The meal turned out to be a whole day-long event. After we finished eating, we got to interact with all of them. I was impressed by their warmth and hospitality. They talked to us about their situation, their projects and their dreams, and by sunset they were playing local music and teaching us dance moves.
I will never forget that day. I am convinced that it made us aware of the value of the program, and afterwards, we did not see our work as a project, but as a chance to influence and improve the lives of others.
The rest of our week in Huancayo involved more interviews with NGOs and local artisans, visits to markets and cooperatives, and a rural economic development tour.
We returned to Lima on an overnight, seven-hour bus ride in order to complete additional interviews, follow up with some contacts made throughout the trip, and for the last four days, completely isolate ourselves in our hotel rooms in order to create our recommendations and final presentation for our clients. After our final presentation, America and her whole family invited us to celebrate the conclusion of our project in a traditional Peruvian restaurant. Then the four of us decided to have one last Pisco sour at a bar near the hotel, where we spent a couple of hours laughing and remembering some of our anecdotes from the past three weeks.
When we returned to the US, and after our summer internships, we had a follow-up conversation with America and were really excited to hear that some of our recommendations were already implemented and generating results. Personally, that information made me feel proud of and happy with the work done, since I not only bonded with three incredible classmates in a way that I otherwise would not have, but I also helped this group of hard-working women improve their way of life.
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2005 - IBD in Easter Island, Chile
