The Mirasol Project is a schooling initiative than began in 2006, when two customers of the Michell Group - Kari Hestnes and Per Svendsen - visited the Mallkini Alpaca Ranch in Peru, meeting one of the shepherd families and getting to know their children, Marisol and Alex. Svendson and Hestnes witnessed the hardship of Marisol and Alex having to travel 2 - 3 hours a day to attend school (a hardship shared by all children within their community) and decided to help create a solution for this problem: a boarding home, located near the schools that the kids went to, that they could stay at from Monday to Friday to shorten their travel time.
The Michell Group immediately got on board with this plan and by 2007 had begun construction of the building. It opened that same year, welcoming primary and secondary school students.
In 2008, the boarding home was expanded to include its own kinder garden program. The program launched in March, with 38 students, 2 teachers, 1 principal and 1 assistant.
By 2013, the Mirasol Project had expanded to incorporate primary school teaching and was receiving volunteer teachers from across the world. Today, the project is recognized internationally as a glowing success story and continues to serve its original function, helping kids from remote areas focus on being schooled rather than simply getting to a school.
Mirasol is largely funded by sales of the Mirasol Hand Knitting Yarn Collection; a series of yarns produced by the Michell Mill. Haynes Creek Heather is not directly part of the Mirasol collection, but they're proudly milled through Michell and we're delighted to endorse their ongoing effort to enrich the lives of the people of Peru.