Ágata
She brings storytelling and art to domestic workers in Peru.
In the middle of a commercial district in Lima, Peru, stands a small house known as La Casa de Panchita. Inside, Ágata is leading a storytelling session.
Ágata acts out all the characters with distinct voices and mimics animal sounds to bring life to the fairy tale she is reading to a group of young girls.
Ágata has been a part of Asociacion Grupo de Trabajo Redes, a nonprofit that advances equality for people in marginalized positions, for the past two decades.
Her current focus: jugando aprendo.
It means “learning by playing” in Spanish, and it’s what happens inside La Casa de Panchita. The safe learning space is led by domestic laborers and former child domestic workers, who, through mentorship, inspire children currently trapped in domestic work in Peru.
“I’m lucky because I like my work,” Ágata says. “My son Lucas is 6 and comes to La Casa de Panchita sometimes to volunteer. Because he’s young, he can’t help much, but I like for him to visit because he learns about other types of reality.”
Ágata gives up each of her Sundays to teach workshops to young girls at La Casa de Panchita. She says it isn’t easy to be away from her son on the weekends when she has to go to work.
Before the workshop ends, each girl who visits La Casa de Panchita receives a beautifully bound book of fairy tales. For most of the girls, this will likely be the first book they own. Paired with the memory of Ágata’s colorful storytelling, it seems like the perfect gift.
Support Ágata’s work with a gift to Asociacion Grupo de Trabajo Redes.
— Story and featured photo by Kayla O’Neill, who traveled to Peru to meet Ágata with GlobalGiving’s Field Program
This is a story from GlobalGiving’s Voices from the Crowd series.
