Meet GES Delegate: Ana Paillamil
Name: Ana Paillamil
Twitter handle: @wallontuwitral
Country of origin: Chile
Organization name: Wallontu Witral- Indigenous Association
Organization website: www.wallontuwitral.org
About Our Organization: We are an indigenous association of 70 women of different districts of Araucania region, in Southern Chile. We all live in indigenous communities in rural areas and are well recognized for the rescue and promotion of traditional weaving in sheep’s wool dyed with natural elements such as flowers, fruits, roots, leaves and even mud. Our organization has a mycrocredit system that helps all members to obtain high quality raw materials to produce textiles. We are also recognized for getting a revolving fund that help us to make monthly purchases to each members in order to support financially the our families.
Our inspiration: Our inspiration is to improve the quality of life of our families and specially our children, and we are all convinced that through the promotion of our art we can both: provide support to our home, and carry out our culture to different corners of the world. Our value is to promote human development in all our activities.
Our next big goal: Wallontu Witral is focused to promote the work of the organization to different areas of the globe, for that we are working hard in two main areas: (1) Focusing to improve our brand of yarn naturally dyed for selling in US and European markets and (2) break the digital gap between our members through training in the area as a way to help them to involve in their children’s lives.
The Biggest Gap: We were born seeing our mothers and grandmothers trading textile in the streets of Temuco in the south of Chile, but nothing has prepared us to the challenge of been entrepreneurs in a digital age. A wide range of our members has no knowledge of ICT’s which are mandatory in the way to make business today. This is a major problem we are facing in our organization, because most of the women are in their 60’s and they have no formal education, some of them don’t even finished the school. For that reason we are looking for ways to help our members to break the gap and with the incorporation of younger women we think we could help the elders to be more connected to the world.
Our Advice to You: You should never give up your dreams. We started trading some products on the streets and now we are paying college to our children and if you thought our children would go to the college, probably we laugh and think you are crazy just for mention that, for even think that would be an option for Mapuche children. But now, with perseverance and hard work our children are getting the best education we could ever imagine. So, work hard and never give up! Follow your dreams and your dreams would come true!
