Dear Friends,

In recent years, the Ashoka, Echoing Green, Skoll, and Schwab foundations have recognized that significant social change often starts with one remarkable individual. Contrary to development models that implement projects directed from above by outside agencies, these foundations invest in “social entrepreneurs” who are creating innovative, community-owned and sustainable social change. I would like to introduce you to one such visionary. His work is still too small to be recognized by these large foundations, but with a bit of our support, he has the potential to protect the dignity, identity, and land of his Andean community.

Fredy Flores Machacca is twenty-five years old. He is a musician, a father, an elected community leader, a filmmaker, an educator, and above all, a committed activist. Seeing his son’s potential at a young age, Fredy’s father made a decision that is very rare in their subsistence farming community: he sent him to attend high school in the next valley. This was just the beginning of Fredy’s engagement with the outside world. I met Fredy in February 2007 at the office of Asociacion ANDES, a small Indigenous-run nonprofit in Cusco, Peru , where he had been sent by community Elders to learn how to use computers.

Fredy comes from the Communities of Q’eros, known throughout the Andes as the last remaining Incan Allyu. The five villages (2,140 people) of the Communities of Q’eros describe their approach to development as “adaptation-resistance”: strategically assimilating new developments that are useful, while conserving the traditional by adapting it to the present. Fredy’s instructions to study technology were part of this strategy, and, at the request of the community and Asociacion ANDES, I partnered with Monte Amador, an American filmmaker, to travel to the Communities of Q’eros to lead video workshops.

As we taught, we interviewed community members to ask what they thought the community needed to do to maintain its identity and dignity in the face of development. People were excited about the arrival of electricity and better access to outside markets, but were also realistic about development’s potential to bring environmental destruction and cultural corruption. A school, they said, over and over again. We need a school where our children can learn how to speak Spanish and become advocates for our community and land.

Six months after returning to the US I received wonderful and unexpected news from Fredy: the community was building a school. A video of the school’s construction, filmed and produced entirely by Fredy, soon followed: Spanish Video. We wired him the remaining $325 from the December 2008 fundraiser to buy wood, windows, and doors (details below). Individual donations allowed Fredy to begin a teacher-training program at an Indigenous-run school outside of Cusco, and slowly, dollar by dollar, sole by sole, The Ccochomocco (“ko-cho-mo-ko”) Education Center has become a reality.

This is not the end of the story. Fredy’s teacher trainings have recently been interrupted by his need to support his family of six; he cannot afford the bus fare needed to complete the critical four months of training before the school will open to forty children in March 2010. Furthermore, about $200 is needed to complete the actual school building.

Most importantly, Fredy is training three community Elders who are enthusiastic about teaching their knowledge of local geography, sacred stories, dance, music, Incan language, and weaving. They, like Fredy, deserve a modest monthly salary to recognize their time and skill, and have asked to be paid $300/month for their time (in contrast, government teachers working nearby receive $350/month). $33/month per a child will cover all teacher salaries and school supplies.

The Ccochomocco Education Center is a remarkable example of an individual bringing a community together to beat the odds. For the past five hundred years, the Communities of Q’eros have proudly retained their way of life and values despite Spanish conquistadors, missionaries, miners, and the aggressive attentions of Peru’s National Institute of Culture, which hopes to market the Q’eros as the “living Inca.” Investing in Fredy and his vision for this school will allow the Communities of Q’eros to lead themselves into a new era of engagement with the outside world rather than to be trampled by it. Please consider the many ways that we can contribute to the continuation of this story; although money is the most direct way to help, it is by no means the only way. Thank you all.

The Many Ways to Help

• In lieu of holiday gifts, ask friends and family to donate to the Ccochomocco Education Center in your name! Direct them to ManaStudios Donations (PayPal) or have them write a check to Pachamama’s Path with your name and Ccochomocco Education Center on the Memo line, and send it to Pachamama’s Path, 5543 Pelican Way, St. Augustine, FL 32080-7051, USA.
• Visit Gifts to buy an item from the 2009-2010 Wish List, below. (Send an email to katherine@manastudios.org if you would like to make your donation as a gift to someone and we will mail a Q’eros note card explaining that a gift was made in their honor). Cards for donations of more than $50 will include a brightly-colored beaded and woven bracelet/anklet made by the women of Q’eros.*
• Join us at our February fundraiser in Cambridge, MA
• Donate air miles that will enable student volunteers to travel to Peru and Fredy to attend our February fundraiser in Cambridge, MA (contact katherine@manastudios.org for details).
• Are you a musician, dancer, or comedian? Host a benefit performance to raise money for the school?
• Connect your school or class to sponsor a child or a classroom at The Ccochomocco
  Education Center.
• Attend a Cultural Survival Bazaar on December 12, 13, 19 or 20th and stop by our table! (www.cs.org)

2009-2010 Wish List

• $200 monthly stipend for Fredy as he completes four more months of teacher-training and begins as the director of The Ccochomocco Education Center ($800 needed in total)-give a week for $50!-
• $84 for the last 7 windows needed to complete the school building
• $100 for tiles to complete the floor of the school
• $33 a month to sponsor one of forty children who will attend the new school (this covers the salaries of four teachers and basic school supplies) ($1320 needed in total)

**If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, please donate through Pachamama’s Path, our 501(c)3 fiscal sponsor: go to Pachamama’s Path Support and direct your donation to “pachamamaspath.org”. Be sure to specify in the Comments field that you are donating to the Communities of Q’eros.

You may be wondering….

There are homeless families in my own city, children starving in Africa, and what about the kids in Afghanistan? Why should I share my limited resources with a school in Peru?

The Communities of Q’eros are not alone in the challenges they are facing. Rapid development and its monetary economies make formal education a necessity for communities around the world that have historically led subsistence lifestyles far removed from global markets. As rural communities face this reality, local education is often either nonexistent or presents knowledge determined by a central government far removed from local geography, culture, and community needs. As a result, children that succeed in rural schools often migrate to cities in search of jobs relevant to their education, while individuals who travel to urban centers for initial education rarely return. The community is thus deprived of potential leaders and future educators while urban social and environmental services face unsustainable pressures. The Ccochomocco Education Center is unique in that it approaches inadequate local education as the root of urban migration and cultural loss; by supporting the Community of Q’eros in their vision for this school, you are empowering them to prepare their children for a promising future in their community rather than the devastating life of urban poverty that likely lies beyond it. Aside from the obvious suffering of the people themselves, urban poverty leads to health disasters, environmental damage, and political instability that drain development money, start wars and collapse economies. Education is important.

Okay, local schools are important, but why THIS school?

Timing is everything, and the timing for The Cchcomocco Education Center is now. Two roads are currently being built into the roadless mountains of Q’eros, and mining prospectors have recently been spotted examining old mines on Q’eros land. In the last year, the approaching roads have dramatically increased tourism to Q’eros, but all of the money is going to tourism operators in Lima, Cusco, and the US. At the same time, families have been moving from Q’eros to the nearby cities not for jobs, as is often assumed, but to provide their children with a good education. As a result, the fiber of the community is weakening as people uproot from ancestral homes or children are sent off to school at young ages. Finally, this school is exceptional in that it was completely conceived of and built by the community. Because of this, its operating costs are minimal and community support, critical to its survival, is guaranteed. Like all schools everywhere, the Ccochomocco Education Center needs outside donations if it is going to provide a quality education to the children of Q’eros, but unlike most schools, it is very isolated and not supported by the government agenda. The support of individual donors is critical.

How do I know you are going to spend my money well? I’d feel much better if you were a larger organization I had heard of before.

We understand that it is sometimes difficult to give money to a small organization that you might not know much about, especially when there are so many big organizations working on worthy causes. Please remember that small projects like ours are often the most effective because they minimize overhead costs and are directly responding to community needs. As you can see from our accounting of 2009 donations listed below, every Dollar, Euro, and Sole that has been given to our work has made a major impact in the Communities of Q’eros. Notice also that we have not spent any money on the overhead costs that so often diminish the budgets of larger nonprofit organizations. This is a reflection of our commitment to putting every donation that we receive directly into meaningful use within the community. We can do this thanks to generous volunteers who have donated their time and skills in support of the Communities of Q’eros; people who deserve special recognition in this regard include US filmmaker Ashley Tindall (Website); Peruvian filmmaker Veronica Perez; education consultants Matt Wilka and Jessica Creighton; expedition partner, Jessie Kerr; and translators Erin Blanchard, Abby McBride, Calen Perkins and Alison Rand. Thank you all!

What your donations to the Communities of Q’eros have accomplished in the past year:

Of the $675 raised through note card sales to individuals, bookstores, and coffee shops:
$350 was used to support Fredy and Martha, two Q’eros community members, as they participated in a week-long video training workshop with Documental Independiente in Lima, Peru:

• $210 was spent on round-trip bus fare between Ocongate-Cusco-Lima
• $80 was spent on food for the two participants
• $60 was given as stipend to the participants to compensate for their time away from work in the community

RESULTS:

• Fredy and Martha produced a Quechua-language video explaining the technical details of how to use video cameras and produce community films. This video will allow more Quechua-speaking communities to use video technology for cultural valuation and political representation
• Fredy and Martha held multiple video workshops upon their return to the community
• A three-minute Peruvian news show presenting the video workshop (in Spanish but with plenty of images for non-Spanish speakers!). Watch it here: Video

RESULTS:

• The community was able to progress with the construction of the school building. Because the Communities of Q’eros are at such a high elevation, it is necessary to transport wood in from the valley by foot. Below is a photo of Fredy and community members transporting building supplies for the school from the town of Ocongate to the village of Ccochomocco.

• $100 was used to cover two months of traveling expenses for Fredy to attend teacher-training in a school near Cusco
• $150 was used to buy three doors for the school building
• $100 was used to buy eight windows for the school building

• Finally, Sacred Land Film Project donated $500 to purchase the roof for the school building in exchange for the communities’ participation in a PBS documentary on Indigenous Peoples and their sacred geographies: Website

If you have more questions please visit the Q’eros website or find us on Facebook (The Ccochomocco School)

Videos of the School:

• Ccochomocco School – Produced by Fredy
• Introduction to the Communities of Q’eros