Raw Adventure in Tarifa: Virginia Toledo

Raw Adventure in Tarifa: Virginia Toledo

Virginia Toledo is not a woman who takes ‘no’ for an answer. Which is how she launched a successful business venture in Tarifa that funds charity work close to her heart in India. As well as being the creative soul of her organic fashion-line, Made In Tarifa, she has built two primary schools for some of the most under-privileged children in the world, in northern India. There’s very little this woman can’t do, all inspired by her love for Tarifa. 

MADE IN TARIFA 

Virginia was born in Tarifa, and though she grew up in Madrid, it was to her birthplace she returned when she was ready to launch her first business. She opened her first shop in town in 2005, and later moved to bigger premises on the main street, Batalla del Salado, 26. In the early days, Virginia made dresses that stood out from the crowd because her fabrics and designs were different from other clothes shops in Tarifa. 

Designing dresses for her shop was her introduction to India. In the winters while it was quiet in Tarifa, she would spend four months in India buying fabric and creating stock for the upcoming summer season. The constant flow of obstacles gifted Virginia with a kind of self-reliance that’s rare. “Everything can change in one second,” she says about the challenges of doing business in India. Over the years, she made a base there, making travel easier and streamlining her business costs. 

She also made friends and got to know locals in the northern region of Rajasthan where she stayed. With time, they became family, and she learned more about how they lived, how poor they were. At first, she bought small things, copybooks, shoes, and jackets to give to the kids. The next year, 2014, she filled a suitcase with school supplies and asked her manager to bring her to a school that would most need them. When they got to the school, she couldn’t believe her eyes. 

FROM TARIFA TO INDIA 

“They had nothing, no chairs, tables, books, nothing,” she says, explaining that the school was basically a “ruin” and the children were feral. The teacher told her that thanks to her donation he would be able to teach 300 kids how to write. Shocked to hear how so little could do so much, she knew she had to do more. She immediately started making plans to help, to give these kids what they needed to go to school “with dignity.” She promised the teacher she’d be back. 

She returned to Tarifa and set up a project with local schools, asking young Spanish kids to write letters to their Indian counterparts. She also raised supplies, more than 500 kilos, which turned out to be impossible to transport. A friend put her in touch with the Charity Collective in the Port of Algeciras who tried but failed to handle the transport. To solve the problem, Virginia donated the supplies to the Algeciras charity and used the money to buy supplies in India. The whole town, teacher, children, and even the mayor were waiting to greet her when she returned. 

Then she learned about a bigger problem. It was unlikely that any of the kids in the school would get to keep the supplies. These kids belonged to the lowest caste in the Indian system known as the ‘untouchable.’ These people have no rights and live in towns with no electricity or running water. Young kids of this caste often end up on the street, on drugs, begging. It became clear that the only way to help these children was to create a safe haven. She began work on a budget for a school. 

HAPPY INSIDE PROJECT

Raising the money was the easy part. Back in Tarifa, she approached the same charity in Algeciras with a new proposal for a school and they were instantly on board. She called the venture the Happy Inside Project, found an abandoned school in a desert village, and got to work. She documented everything on her Happy Inside Youtube channel, filming and editing all the videos herself, showing the entire process and the never-ending stream of challenges to be overcome. 

At first, her crew was little more than two women with bowls. But no matter the obstacle, she found a work-around and the school was finished. The videos of the kids celebrating the opening of the school are particularly moving. Virginia didn’t stop there. Armed with in-depth knowledge of how things get done in India, friends started asking to accompany her on trips. She saw an opportunity to create a unique travel package, introductions to India that involved doing voluntary work with disadvantaged kids. 

These ‘solitary trips’ are the springboard for profound change for both the visitors and the kids they meet in India, and another example of Virginia’s versatility. In 2023, she put a team together and built a second school in India. This time, she hired a director to turn the experience into a documentary, Mi Primera Letra, released in April 2024. Today, Virginia happily divides her time between Tarifa and India, eager to give back to the two homes that have given her so much. 

CUSTOM-MADE IN TARIFA

Virginia does it all, comes up with the ideas, sets out a plan, puts it in motion, organizes teams, gets people talking, moves materials, gets the job done. She also makes clothes, her first passion. In recent years, she’s shifted the focus of Made In Tarifa Lifestyle brand to customized hoodies, sourcing the best organic cotton in Europe, offering a wide range of colours and designs, and even the chance to customize a hoodie with an individual logo. 

When asked if Tarifa contributes to her endless drives, she says, “Tarifa is my base. Not just that. For me, there is no other place. I’ve travelled everywhere, all over the world, and nowhere else offers me the same quality of life, the friendly people, weather, food, water sports. I can leave my house with no money and eat anywhere, no problem. We’re like one big family. And I try to live in the same way when I travel, to bring this feeling of family with me wherever I go. That’s what I try to share with the world through my projects.”