Mama Ursula is one of many Peruvians who have moved to Lima from the remote areas of Peru looking for work. She is one of the founding members of the shantytown community Luis Felipe de las Casas, and has remained a much loved and respected character in the neighbourhood.

For the last twenty years she has made a living cooking delicious food on her market stall, but as this kind of business can be very hard and unpredictable, she began weaving as a way of sustaining her income. Her incredible generosity, despite her own hardship, has seen her cooking for many local people and giving the main room in her house up to provide a meeting place for a local church.

Using traditional Peruvian techniques learnt from her aunt, Mama Ursula creates hand-woven jute and hemp belts. Mama Ursula enjoys her weaving as it means she can work at home, spending the day in the company of her pets Arturo the dog and Chincha the cat, whilst also earning a living wage. The money she has earned from making the belts over the last few months has enabled her to pay for an operation that she urgently needed.

Just Trade works with Mama Ursula to develop her work for the western market, so that she has the information she needs to adapt her traditional skills to produce functional but original items.  Her dream for the future is to teach others the techniques and design skills she has learnt and so pass on the opportunity of fairly paid work to her friends and neighbours. In February this year she introduced her friend Perpetua to Laura from Just Trade and together they have started to develop a range of knitted and crocheted baby clothes using beautiful soft certified Fairtrade, organic cotton.