42 Pallaqueras (women mineral selectors), who are members of MACDESA (a Fairmined certified mining organization) in Arequipa, received food baskets as support due to the current conditions they are facing during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Pallaqueras are artisanal miners who work handpicking rocks with precious metal content. Since the quarantine started in this country, in March 2020, these women had to suspend their mining activities. Therefore, they stopped earning their income.
Facing this vulnerability situation, considering that many of these women are househould heads, and have not received any economic or food aids from the authorities yet, the Alliance for Responsible Mining (ARM), along with the Better Gold Initiative from the Swiss Cooperation (SECO) and ABR, gave these food baskets valued in 26 USD each last May (the baskets included groceries such as rice, sugar, oil, milk, tuna, beans, noodles, and oats; disinfection elements like gel alcohol and bleach, and surgical masks).
