Empower Ecuadorian Women to Elevate Communities

Dear Friends, 

We have been working hard this 2019, setting new goals to empower women and communities.

This past few months Kallpa Warmi, in an incredible initiative to empower rural women financially, has been working with Hearts of Gold through Mírame  to help these women discover their inner strength and value through a series of workshops in communication, motivation, strategic planning and personal mentorship, totalling 30 hours so far in this new year.  

Hearts of Gold will continue working with Kallpa Warmi by offering professional workshops and support to strengthen the rural agro-collective’s organization, which is currently going through a change of leadership. Kallpa Warmi will receive stable assistance through this transition to ensure it not only grows but THRIVES. What began with 10 women now includes over 90 women! Let’s keep that momentum growing to support more rural women from Ecuador in attaining financial independence! 

In March 2019 Mírame began a new chapter, and took on it’s own change of leadership, with Project Leader Colleen Eschenburg initiating new opportunities for women’s empowerment as a formal partner of Hearts of Gold.   

As Colleen stated, “My goal in leading Mirame is to facilitate a program to help women find themselves, stand up for themselves, feel ok in their own skin.

We’re all on a search for happiness in this world, and we are often told if we do good at “X”, we will be happy. 

But what if the reverse is true? What if we were happy, as we are, with life as is, and then the good “X” followed? The good grades follow, the good marriage follows, the good job follows?

I want to help women find their center, and to find it by reconnecting with their roots. Their unique and beautiful Ecuadorian-Andean heritage.

After a lot of investigation and inquiry with local women these past few months, I marvel at the polarization found in their stories. Incredible resiliency, incredible strength, incredible feelings of isolation and low-self-worth.

Most women I’ve interviewed are not proud to be women, and most are also not proud to be Ecuadorian.

With Mírame, I want to invite these women to connect with others, to connect with the wisdom traditions of their ancestral roots, and to exchange support for one another so that they can come to honor their womanhood and their Ecuadorian-Andean roots.”

With this goal in mind, Mírame is lining up a series of workshops with local visionaries and ancestral healers to help women connect with themselves, their roots, and with other women.

Mírame will begin introducing this workshop series starting in September at CASA VIOLETA, a care-home for underage girls who were victims of domestic and sexual abuse. 

We want to thank you so much for supporting Mírame as it advances into this exciting direction and new collaborative partnership with Hearts of Gold.  Please stay tuned for the amazing news to come on the upcoming months as Mirame unfolds it’s services with the young girls at CASA VIOLETA!