Hand Knitted Bears from Peru

Today (June 27, 2006) I went to Town Hall and I saw these two interesting "Mother and Daughter Bears" at Oxfam shop. These two bears were hand knitted in Peru by artisans who work with MINKA to avoid exploitation by conventional traders.

Minka means mutual cooperation in the Quechua. By choosing this product you are helping Minka to provide the 4000 member families with a better income for their traditional handwork, skills training, basic health care, education opportunities and you also are contributing to save the coloured alpacas from extinction. These two bears were handspun by using 100% pure Alpaca fine hair.

The shop assistant today was Arin and I named the baby bear after her. Arin the bear and the mother now live happily with me.