The Ch’allma School Project: Nurturing Tradition and Development Peru Bates College Hannah Rae Porst, USA www.challmaschool.org

Section I Project Goal: The goal of my Projects for Peace grant was to build the first school ever for the indigenous Q’eros village of Ch’allmachimpana in the Andes mountains of Peru. Through the primary school, I hoped to help the community change their future by preparing them for interaction with the modern world while preserving and nurturing their traditions and rich cultural heritage. Fundraising: I began to fundraise for the school among family and friends in January of 2010, months before the Projects for Peace grant announcements were made. We have raised over $15,000, not counting the Davis grant. The generous outpouring of support has been humbling for me and heartwarming for the children and their families. Project Details: After a year of working with local officials, anthropologists and community members, we bought desks and supplies and opened the school in temporary quarters in March of 2011, a year ahead of schedule. As soon as the Projects for Peace grant funds were distributed, the fathers of Ch’allmachimpana began constructing the official school building. The Q’eros have been in charge of all aspects of building the school, including purchasing construction materials, laying stone walls and thatching the roof. It has been an empowering process that has capitalized on their human assets, as they have been directing their own community’s development. We hired a certified bilingual, intercultural education specialist, Elver Condori, and he is teaching the children to read and write in Quechua, their native tongue, and Spanish. Elver is a passionate teacher who cares deeply for the children and their education. This summer he began to take courses with a Cusco based NGO for which I work. The organization is dedicated to improving education in rural indigenous communities by training teachers to use an arts-based alternative methodology that respects and promotes indigenous Andean cultures. In September, the children will move into the new Ch’allma School from their temporary school in the community house. Ch’allmachimpana authorities and I met recently with the mayor of Paucartambo, whose district includes Q’eros, and he has committed to paying for the teacher’s salary in the upcoming year until the school is officially recognized and financially supported by the Peruvian government. The children are learning in a progressive environment close to their families, instead of having to migrate to Cusco or walk hours across treacherous mountain passes to attend school. We are helping them stay at home and strengthen their soulful, intelligent identity. This project began with the simple idea that all people deserve aspects of modernity that lead to a better quality of life: education, health care, electricity and clean drinking water. When I returned

to Cusco this past June, I was contacted by a representative of a European foundation who had heard about the Ch’allma School Project and wanted to discuss potential development work in the community. In October of this year, I’ll be taking her and two Peruvian engineers on a week long trek around all six villages of Q’eros to investigate a multi million dollar solar/wind energy and potable water project for the entire community. It’s wonderful to think that this grassroots school project in one Q’eros village that my Davis Projects for Peace grant helped start may now develop into powerful changes for over 1000 people. Section II Over the course of the summer, I have been inspired by Kathryn W. Davis’s statement that “love, kindness, and support are also part of human nature.” I remain convinced that peace, as I wrote in my proposal, stems from the fundamental idea that we are all each other’s keepers. In many ways, I see the Q’eros people as personifying peace. Worldview concepts of ayni, the importance of reciprocal sharing, and animu, awareness of an animated essence in all things, shape their interactions; they are caretakers of each other and their natural world. The Q’eros’ dignity, kindness and essential wisdom shine the moment you meet them. The primary school in Ch’allmachimpana is helping to keep the children in their community where this cultural character and value system is instilled. The school, with its dynamic and creative curriculum, is promoting and preserving their culture and cosmology that is based upon respect and communal support. We could all learn ways of peace and harmonious interaction from them. Spending time with the Q’eros people over the past year and a half has changed who I am, how I see the world and, consequently, how I act in it. I was introduced to the Q’eros community by watching my academic advisor’s documentary on their traditional music and rituals. In the film, we meet a young mother, Juana, who is expressing grief over her husband’s tragically young death. Towards the end of the documentary, we see Juana again, one year later. She turns to the camera and states, in Quechua, “Last year I was sad, but I’m happy now.” When I traveled to Q’eros for the first time in the spring of 2010, Juana was the first person I met. She has become one of my closest friends in Ch’allmachimpana. Her smile and sweet chuckle represent the Q’eros’ resilience despite the harsh conditions they face. She and her people have brought an understanding of peace to my life that I can bring to the world. “We could all learn ways of collaboration and harmonious interaction from the Q’eros people. Working in this community has brought an understanding of peace to my life that I can bring to the world.” - Hannah Rae Porst

Meeting with a group of Q’eros fathers to discuss the building plans.

Spending time with one of my favorite Q’eros children.

Three students, Yolanda, Luz Marina and Carolina, sit in a window opening of the new school building.