Llamas for Lima is a Bears Without Borders program in located in Peru. The goal of Llamas for Lima is employ local craftspeople in the production of stuffed toy Llamas and to distribute those Llamas to unfortunate children who are victims of illness and abuse. Llamas for Lima produces jobs, joy, and hope for the future.

Grupo El Mercurio is a group of women specializing in knitting and crocheting.  The group is named for the famous mercury mine that was founded in 1530 and dominates Santa Barbara, the area that these women are from. They have been working since the beginning of 2003.  Before their work together, some washed clothes in the river for families who lived in Huancavelica.  Some shined shoes. Some worked in homes as maids. None of these activities result in income that would ever help them out of extreme poverty.  

 These women all fled to the outskirts of Huancavelica in the 1980´s in the face of horrific violence in the Huancavelica countryside. (In 2003 it was finally reported that nearly 70,000 people were killed in Peru - most in Ayacucho and Huancavelica - in the 80´s and 90´s.)   Some of these women arrived as young orphans. They live in a part of Huancavlica still called Santa Barbara as the inhabitants came from that region. Most have children or other family responsibilities.  

We fund Grupo Mercurio to produce hand-knitted stuffed llamas, that are in turn distributed to impoverished or ill children in Peru.  

Click here or here to donate a llama to a child, and provide employment for a woman working to care for her family.

For more information about our Peru program, please email: llamas4lima@bearswithoutborders.org.

Photo Credit: Joaquin Blaya, Bear Ambassador, Peru