Final sale of sweaters knitted by women from Bolivia set for Saturday at Lake Country church

Fifteen years ago, Bev Edwards-Sawatzky, an Oyama woman, took 45 poverty-stricken Bolivian women under her wing.

When she saw a display of sweaters knitted by the Minkha Co-operative in Bolivia, she knew she had to get involved. The next year, she flew to Bolivia, the poorest nation in South America, to get to know the knitters and their story personally.

Until the late 1980s, the women had lived in Oruro; their men worked in the world’s richest tin mines. Then world tin markets crashed. The mines closed.

In that machismo culture, the men abandoned their wives and children and left in search of new jobs. Relocated to Cochabamba and lacking education, employable skills and incomes, the women eked out an existence on the streets.

The only skill they had was knitting. All through the Andes, women knit — while walking, talking, riding the bus or tending children.

A Save the Children Canada representative organized a few of these displaced women into a knitting cooperative, called Minkha, and brought some of their sweaters to Canada.

In the local Quechua language, “Minkha” means “women working together.”

Since then, the annual sales that Edwards-Sawatzky has organized in Edmonton, Calgary, Cranbrook and, most recently, in Lake Country have sent close to $1 million to the Bolivian women.

But this year’s sale will be the last. After 15 years of volunteer service, Edwards-Sawatzky is wearing out. The final sale, this Saturday, will be held at Winfield United Church, 3751 Woodsdale Rd., in Lake Country.

The Bolivian sweaters will be available from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Sweater prices range from $190 to $210. Ruanas, a knitted wrap worn like a coat, cost $250. Shawls and hats cost as little as $40.

“It sounds expensive,” Edwards-Sawatzky admits. “But the alpaca wool alone would cost that much here in Canada. In any international retail market, the price would be at least twice as high.”

Some garments are also knitted in lighter-weight pima cotton, which Edwards-Sawatzky calls “the Cadillac of cottons.”

Over the past 15 years, these sales have sent close to $1 million to bring the 45 families out of poverty. All of the money received for sweaters goes to the Bolivian women. Canadian sales are run entirely by volunteers.

Each sweater takes about two weeks of steady knitting; a ruana can take three or four weeks. After buying her wool from local suppliers, each knitter makes about $1.60 an hour.

It’s not much. Some of the women still live in what Canadians would consider poverty. Chickens roam through dirt-floored houses. A few women still cook on charcoal fires. But others have improved their homes with brick walls and permanent roofs.

Since the Minkha Cooperative was launched 30 years ago, one of the knitters has now had two children in university — one to become a nurse and the second a human-rights lawyer. Another woman’s son recently graduated as a doctor and has returned to the city of Cochabamba to serve the people where he got his start.

The doors will open for this year’s final Bolivian sweater sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. For more details, call Winfield United Church at 250-766-4458 or EdwardsSawatzky at 250-766-6808.