Manos Amigas

Manos Amigas is a fair trade organization dedication to the export of handicrafts and to alternative tourism. Manos Amigas, which means “Hands Joined In Friendship,” works with family workshops and with small business groups and associations that make a variety of handicrafts in impoverished areas of Lima and in the Andean highlands. Manos Amigas offers training workshops for their artisans. They also participate in international trade fairs, thus gaining new markets.

Manos Amigas was established in Lima in 1991. It began with 10 to 12 producer groups. Ten Thousand Villages was one of its two first customers. Ten Thousand Villages purchases ornaments, nativities, retablos, jewelry, ceramics, musical instruments, painted wood items, finger puppets, reverse painted glass items and miniature animals from Manos Amigas. Ten Thousand Villages has purchased products from Manos Amigas since 1991.