Story of Change: Leonor's New Future

Knitting Together A New Future

Leonor was born in the Andean highlands of Peru into a family of farmers. When she was 14 she moved to the capital city of Lima to attend high school with the hope that by attending a better school she would have greater opportunity in life. Unfortunately, Leonor found herself in the situation of most young migrants and was forced to drop out of school because she didn’t have the money to pay for school fees. She held many jobs before working at Krochet Kids Peru (KKP) including serving at a Chinese food restaurant and selling bread in the street. When KKP staff first met Leonor she was working in a factory where her job was to put labels on cleaning supply bottles. “Before coming to KKP I used to work in whatever job I could get, it was an unstable situation. I had to work to support my daughter,” she explains. When asked if she found value in her work she replied, “No, I worked 12 hours every day and I had to leave my daughter for long periods of time.” Today, Leonor’s life is much different. She is able to support her daughter in the ways she always hoped to. She is providing better food, water and housing, but the accomplishment she is most proud of is sending her daughter to the KKPeru Childcare Center that is holistically investing into her at a very young age. When asked how her life has changed Leonor responded, “Before I came here I was a very distrustful and vengeful person. Today I can see I have changed a lot. I have learned to take things calmly and now I put things in God’s hands.” Leonor is planning for life after Krochet Kids Peru by developing a business plan for a small clothing company. She plans on combining the knitting skill she has mastered at KKP with her training in business practices to start a knitting & textile company. When we asked her what she would like to say to KKi customers across the world she had this to say, “I appreciate you for buying our products. You don’t know exactly what we are going through here in Peru, but your purchases are helping us.” - - - VIEW LEONOR'S ONLINE PROFILE | SUPPORT OUR WORK BY SHOPPING - - -