Peru
Of the 8 million people living below the poverty line, Peru’s indigenous Quechua populations who live in remote rural areas are considered the most vulnerable.
School Supplies for Willoq Alto & Paru Paru Villages
in partnership with Apurimac Adventures & Global Pearls
The Project: distribution of school supplies to students in the mountain villages of Willoq Alto (62 students) and in Paru Paru (185 students), Peru. The school supplies cost approximately $35 USD per child, but each family contributed approximately $10 USD. Normally the families are able to fully cover these costs, but as tourism has dried up to almost nothing during COVID, these families are experiencing very bad financial conditions. The school supplies cost approximately $6,000.
Location: Villages of Willoq Alto and Paru Paru, Peru
These two tiny mountain communities are found above 12,000 feet in the highest part of the Andes where it is almost impossible to grow anything besides potatoes and grains, and even then the growing season is very short. Prior to the pandemic, families were able to earn income by serving as porters on the Inca Trail or by selling weavings through intermediaries, to tourists. But with the collapse of tourism, they have struggled.
Our Local Partner Organization
Apurimac Adventures is a locally-owned tour operator based in Cusco, Perú. The founder, Juan Covarrubias Ccaihuari, is a Quechua from Choquequirao, whose ancestral family has lived in the mountains for over 150 years. Apurimac Adventures is devoted to promoting the welfare of the indigenous peoples of the region. They pay their staff a generous wage to help them make a better life for themselves and their families and are also actively engaged in designing and implementing development projects that benefit the communities along their trekking trails.
PERU up close
Population: 33.36 million
Region: Peru is located in the western part of South America just below the equator. It has a varied topography that consists of a coastal plain in the west, high rugged mountains in its center (the Andes), and a lowland jungle in the east that leads into the Amazon River basin.
Area: 1.285 million km²
