Quechua Benefit has entered into a joint project with Health Bridges International (HBI) to do a needs assessment in the Colca Valley where Casa Chapi will be located and the site of the medical clinic that we are designing and building. The survey is being conducted according to an acceptable research protocol supervised by the…
Category Archives: Peru
Mission in the Andes
The highlands of Peru are home to the vast majority of all the alpacas in the world. The Quechua Indians, who domesticated the vicuna more than five thousand years ago, are the source of the alpaca which now reside in the outside world. Their world of high plains and harsh environment resists the probability of…
Marias Story
Peru knocks the wind out of me, the high altitude steals air from my lungs, bitter nights chill my bones, and I grow silent. I prepared myself for a country that was once the naval of the new world, with beautiful landscapes, fabulous food, and ancient textiles.
A New Dawn in the Ancient Andes
The Michell Company is a vertically integrated Peruvian textile manufacturing conglomerate that is known to almost everyone associated with the specialty fiber business.
Chacu!
The wild Vicuna stood rigid and still a mere three feet away. Her round ebony eyes mirrored the image of man — her mortal enemy for more than ten thousand years. She seemed to be simultaneously contemplating escape and submission. The cria stood boldly at her side, while the Chacu swirled on around them.
Sister Antonia and The Mystic Powers of Peru’s Cuy
Sister Antonia Kayser is a plucky 81 year-old Catholic nun with a secret. Born and raised in the borough of Brooklyn, New York she is a member of the Maryknoll Order. Sister Antonia has been feeding 800 dirt-poor people a day since 1973 from the courtyard of the church in Yanque, a small town in the Colca Valley of Peru.
The Empty Chair
A light rain fell as we forded the river on our way to Macusani from Nunoa. It was exactly a year since I last visited Don Julio Barreda at Accoyo on November 17, 2006.
The Quechua People: An Abandoned Race
The indigenous Indians of Peru are unique in the modern world. They are uniformly spiritual, uninterested in politics, and loyal to their families; they are not greedy or materialistic; they express themselves in shy smiles and rarely complain. Their pride is intact despite the almost inhumane solitude of the Altiplano and dismal treatment by the last 500 years of history. They have become a forgotten people, often abandoned by their government, exploited by the machinery of commerce and left behind by the advances of medicine and the march of modernity. It is Quechua Benefit‘s goal to deliver a modest measure of relief and hope to the everyday challenge of their lives.
Domestic Violence in Peru
The United Nations defines domestic violence as: “the use of force or threats of force by a husband or boyfriend for the purpose of coercing and intimidating a woman into submission”. Domestic violence is a serious, long-standing problem in most countries but Peru has one of the highest incidences of domestic violence in the world. Nearly half the women living in Peru have been physically assaulted by their partners and in rural areas such as the Southern Highlands; the percentage goes up to 61%. The situation there is exacerbated by the unique challenges of rural living including extreme poverty, isolation and varying community and familial expectations.
Sister Antonia 1924-2010
Saints are rare. Few people are privileged to meet one face to face here on earth. Sainthood is determined after death through a process of beatification, where miracles attributed to the candidate are enumerated and scrutinized. Sister Antonia, who worked in humble obscurity unseen by most of the world, will probably never be considered by the earthly powers that attend to these matters.
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