chaka-runa newsletter q2 2015 english
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Chaka-Runa NGO Quarterly newsletter English number 1TRANSCRIPT
Quarterly Newsletter http://chaka-runa.org Page | 1
Welcome to this adventure! When children we all had dreams that sadly got forgotten when we grew up. Many of us we met in 2011 in a special moment of our lives: for some it was about a sabbatical year “getting off the world”, for some others it was a sandwich year between their studies and before “getting on the world” ready to start their professional careers, for some others it was a year about discovering themselves in order to change the direction of their lives… What united all of us from the beginning were our dreams, all of us independently of our age, our circumstances and/or our challenges renounced to his/her dreams. And one of these shared dreams was and nowadays still is to leave the world a little bit better that when we found it; this is how Chaka-Runa NGO was born. In October 2014 we decided to start working together in order to create a platform that provided the opportunity for everybody to help if they wanted to do so from their own homes as well as to be the forum where many of the ideas that we had in the form of a seed could, one day, to flourish slowly but surely. In May 2015 we received the authorization from the Belgian Government to work as Non Profit Association. In June 2015 we started our work with two different activities: -An official kick-off dinner to present Chaka-Runa in Ticino (Switzerland) -A winter good collection’s campaign in Cusco (Peru) in order to support the Q’eros communities in the high Andes of Peru. Both events were very successful thanks to all of you! So we want to thank you, to share with you our adventures as well as to invite you dreaming with us. Do you dare to do so?... Then just keep reading
Chaka-Runa Team
Welcome & Thank You!
In this number:
1 Welcome Message
2 Our objectives
2 Working areas
2 Our challenges
3 Our activities
3 Switzerland: presentation dinner
4 Thank you Ticino
5 Our activities
5 Cusco: winter goods collection
8 Thank you Cusco
9 Our next activities
10 You can also support us
And one of these
shared dreams was and
nowadays still is to
leave the world a little
bit better that when we
found it, this is how
Chaka-Runa NGO was
born
Q2/2015 NUMBER 1
August 2015 © Chaka-Runa ASBL
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-We aim to alleviate the difficulties of the Andean populations and NGOs
already working on the field in terms of awareness and funding so, that,
together, we can support more people and/or develop new projects
-To raise awareness about other realities elevating the level of consciousness
in the countries where we live to achieve a socio-cultural change through
educational programs
-To find sponsoring and/or financing for the differents projects we are
working on and/or we support
-To provide the help and support when needed
-To create synergies between people, NGOs, projects and different countries
Our Objectives
Our 3 main working areas:
-Education => Our main objective is to invest in children and young people‘s
education, helping to create conscious people.
-Women & Children’s Rights => Our main objective is to promote a peaceful,
egalitarian and fair society investing in reducing violence and any kind of
discrimination towards women, children and elderly people
-Indigenous People’s Rights => Our main objective is to end discrimination,
helping to raise awareness of the rich history, culture, spirituality and
traditions of the Andean people
Working Areas
Our three main working
areas:
-Education
Women & Children’s
Rights
Indigenous People’s
Rights
Our Challenges
-All Chaka.Runa’s members we freely donate our time, ideas and energy to
the project and many times our availability is limited
-Peru has very restrictive legislation regarding sending materials for the
projects we support. The shipping costs are incredibly high so we need to
look for alternative ideas that help us to provide the help where is needed
-The cultural differences between all of us including the NGOs that we
support are huge, the idea of time included
-In Peru not all the projects, associations and/or NGOs stablished have a real
social non-profit aim, corruption exists at all levels and it obliges us to be
especially careful when choosing projects and/or NGOs with whom to work
-To achieve enough visibility and support in order to help as much as we
would love to
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Our activities
Our two first activities where jointly organized in Switzerland and Peru
In the Italian Switzerland in the city of Ticino, Romina Fenaroli our Events &
Fundraising Director organized a kick-off dinner to present our association
We now leave you with Romina so she can explain you how everything
was
Ticino (Switzerland) 28th June 2015
Official Presentation of Chaka-Runa in Switzerland-Ticino
“The afternoon has been intense. The five volunteer cookers full of good will
have been working hard. In the air we can notice the energy of a great
beginning, prowess get concretizing, there are still some minutes left to start
and the appetizers table is not yet ready.
It is 18 pm on Sunday 28th of June and people are starting to arrive. Mission
accomplished, we did it and all is ready!!!
In this hot night in the beginning of the summer we also are breathing an air
of joy. People with curiosity choose from the bar between different drinks
some of them Peruvian as the Cusqueña beer or the very sweet Inka Cola.
There exists also a gentle sharing of stories. Between the attending public
there are people who have travelled to Peru and explain their experiences,
some others ask for information about travels or social nonprofit volunteer
opportunities.
People move smooth between the appetizers and the photographic
exposition. Some people approach me to let me know the emotions they
feel with the pictures they have looked at. The faces of the children in the
pictures or the unexpected landscapes views have capture their attention. It
is really a great feeling to know that one can reach people’s hearts with just
one picture.
And all that is being done listening to some Argentinian music that is
produced by 2 girls from Buenos Aires that I met in a restaurant in
Copacabana, in the limits between Peru and Bolivia.
When all our guests have arrived I decide to start the official presentation of
our NGO Chaka-Runa.
I realize that people is listening to me with great curiosity and interest as well
as in silence. I explain to them what has taken me, after a long year
travelling through South American countries to start what I can just define as
the logic continuation of my trip, the creation of a NGO.
I explain the beginning of what for us (the Chaka-Runa’s team) is a big
project, created with a lot of will, big tones of love and that requests from us
a lot of time, effort and energy.
Romina Fenaroli
Events & Fundraising Director
The appetizer
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In a simple and respectful way I explain that we aim to be the New
Creators of Bridges (the real meaning of Chaka-Runa), as explains an
Andean legend. We do want to create bridges between the Andean
culture and the European world; we have the ambition to create an
educational project “Twinning Schools” in order to create awareness about
the Andean traditions and know-how in the European schools, supporting
the indigenous populations with their activities acknowledging the
immense wisdom they keep.
Between the projects we would like to help our priority are educational
projects, projects where women and children rights are implemented as
well as projects that have as priority protecting the rights of the indigenous
ancestral cultures.
At the end of the presentation people start clapping and cheering me.
Many people approach me to say that they find very interesting our way of
working. They specially love the idea of supporting small existing NGOs
already working in the Andes. They love the thought of not only helping
financially but specially with practical options, providing goods and
concrete material as well as providing socio-cultural support to the
populations in need.
I am extremely happy listening to all of them after the presentation. It’s a
great recognition to all the hard work we have been doing during the past
year.
After that we start with the Peruvian dinner with a cold and delicious
gazpacho, to continue with a chicken’s aji with sweet potatoes and a
quinoa salad defined by the attendants as delicious!
The joy of people is the perfect successful ending for this beautiful night
that aims to be the first of a long list of Chaka-Runa’s events in Switzerland.
See you soon in our next event on the 27th of September in the first Latin-
American Cultural Festival organized by the association “Camino Cultural”
that will be held in the area of Bedigliora-Novaggio-Banco (Lugano-Ticino).
We’ll keep you posted. We count on you!!!
Romina Fenaroli
Thank You Ticino
We want to warmly thank the help and support of:
Alessia, Carla, Daniele, Luca, Matteo, Rosa and Sara for all the practical
and logistic support they have provided to us.
And to all the people that answered our call on that evening, being part of
the beginning of a dream that slowly but surely is being born.
GRAZIE TICINO!
Part of the kitchen volunteer’s team
The expected dinner: Peruvian!
Some moments through the presentation
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Our activities
In Peru, in the Imperial city of Cusco, the ancient capital of the Inca Empire,
Diana Otoya Mendieta our Cusco Operations Director organized an in-kind
donation campaign in order to collect goods for the cold Andean winter that
started on the 21st of June in the Southern hemisphere.
The in-kind donation was destined to Nación Q’eros concretely to the ayllu
of ChuaChua where live 29 families.
The Q’eros are one of the oldest ancestral indigenous people with a
strongest identity in the Andes: they are the last descendants of the Inca that
fled to the highest mountains of the Andes when the Spanish invaded
America and as such they were never conquered.
They have been living in small hamlets (ayllus) scattered at more than 4.500
altitude meters in the slopes of the snowed Ausangate. The Q’ero are also
known as the “Andean Mystics”, they have an incredible cultural wealth and
have been able of self-sustain themselves for more than 500 years.
They need our help to continue living their traditions as their life conditions
are deteriorating greatly and live in very extreme poverty under extremely
tough conditions.
We leave you with Diana who will explain you how everything was.
Diana Otoya Mendieta
Cusco Operations Director
And our youngest volunteer, her
daughter Caetana 11 months
old
Cusco (Peru) June 2015
“It took us about 2 weeks to collect all the clothes, school material, food etc,
to choose and order it, separating clothes for girls and/or for boys and to put
all in boxes.
At 5 am they came to pick up us, we were still sleepy but with great
excitement as well as a bit tired after loading all the boxes in the car but we
were finally travelling to Paucartambo, our first stop. We were travelling with
my two daughters, one of 4 years old and the other of 11 months, my best
friend, her son of 4 years old and our driver. In our way we also picked up
Fabiana the ChuaChua teacher that started explaining us how was the
place, the people, their story and their believes.
The road was full of curves not dangerous but the children started feeling
dizzy and if you travel with 3 of them it only takes one to start vomiting for the
rest to follow. After almost 3 hours we arrived to Paucartambo a very
beautiful clean and organized little village that is only alive during the fifteen
days of July when they celebrate the “Virgen del Carmen”. In Paucartambo
we took breakfast, visited the toilets, walked a bit and we bought the last
things needed for our trip and we continued our way.
After 3 more hours of road (around 13 pm) we were at more of four thousand meters above sea level, the landscape was impressive and then, suddenly appeared Apu Ausangate welcoming us to the first Q’ero village ChuaChua.
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Our youngest and
fearless volunteers:
Yago and Julieta (4
years old) and Caetana
(11 months old)
Apu Ausangate: 6.372 masl
Nación Q’eros:
ChuaChua Community
As we were going down the last hill we could see the little village (ayllu) in the distance, when we started getting close we could see all the little houses around, all very similar with the WC separated from the main house and all painted with the same colors. We stop the car in front of the school and then just a little hill separated us from the center of the little village. Fabiana was the only one getting off the car, she said she was calling the children to help us unloading all the things we have brought. We get off the car just to stretch a bit the legs when suddenly we looked backwards and we saw all the children of the little village running to us and of course our own children got scared and run into the van. All the children and their mums were around us and started saying hello, hugging us, shaking hands, they were introducing themselves and they were also talking to us but we could not understand so we kn1w for our next visit we have to learn Quechua! We started unloading things and with the help of Fabiana we started communicating with the “mamis” and the children.
We left everything in the main room of the school and we went for lunch. We sit in a circle and the “mamachas” brought “huatia” that are potatoes that have been cooked inside the earth, they brought them covered on a mantle, they put the potatoes in the center of the circle and I had to be the first one in taking a pair of “papas/potatoes” because if I was not the first in doing it nobody could have eat them afterwards. Fabiana kept explaining us all about ChuaChua: they are 29 families living there, they eat “papas” every day, some of them may have chickens and may eat eggs, some have “alpacas” and in very few occasions they eat charqui (dried meat). The little school has only 2 classrooms, kindergarten and primary school. Children receive breakfast and lunch in the school, they also have soap to wash their hands and their own dental kits. After lunch we went back to the main class to open the boxes we have brought and separate the clothes by sizes. We started with the babies, they were bringing one by one and something that caught our attention was that the babies didn’t wear swaddling clothes, the babies were carried on their mum’s blankets and they were not controlled to see if they peed or did something else. So we ended up just uncovering one of them that was very cold on the wet peed blanket, we managed to cover him with some tights, a trouser and we returned to cover him with the wet blanket.
Donations
100 Frazadas (blankets)
10 kilos of rice
20 kilos of noodles
8 liters of oil
48 cans of milk
30 kilos of oat
48 dental kits
Different scholar materials
Toys
Winter clothes for adults and
children
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We kept distributing all the winter clothes donated to the kids and the oldest children, when they came in we asked their names and age and we got shocked when we learnt that children of 8 years old had in fact the size of a 4 years old and this is because of the lack of vitamin “O” as my mother-in-law says (O from “olla” in Spanish, meaning they are lacking of nutrients as “olla” is the casserole were food is cooked, if there is not food to cook there is no “olla” (casserole)) as well as the extreme conditions and cold they live in. Julieta and Yago had gone playing with the children and as they are very clever children, every time they came in to say they were fine they came with a new question: why the children don’t use tights and/or socks? Why they don’t have shoes? Why is their skin so hard and dry? Why their noses are not clean? And more and more questions we did not know how to answer to children of 4 years old but apparently they understood our answers and they went back playing and chasing chickens. The afternoon passed fast and the heads of the families arrived back to their homes, they have gone to the biggest “ayllu” that acts as local management center to a meeting. The men in comparison with the “mamachas” they all spoke Spanish. To them we gave the “frazadas” (blankets) that we had brought, they thanked us in the name of the entire village and then we started to hug each other and we got more hand shaking. The sunset was already happening when they invited us to a visit a house; the only thing we thought was please let it be nearby!!! They told us “it’s just here…” Well… after more than 15 minutes walking in the mountains at more than 4.000 meters above sea level, with our 3 children and after having escalated a little hill in the almost complete darkness we arrived to the house of Ezequiel. A little house with just a room that serves for everything: one side with the stove-kitchen and one side for the bedroom. Ezequiel and his wife invited us to sit in the bedroom side and they asked us to cut her little baby daughter’s hair for the first time, this is the famous “ratachi”. First they offered us the “huatia” and then we cut the hair of María del Carmen Vida Bella our first goddaughter. These little haircuts are then put on a little blanket and then are buried and, we all become godmothers of the little baby girl. It arrived the moment to be back into the school that it was where we were going to spend the night but going down the hill with the only lights of 2 headlights and 3 “wawas” (our 3 own children) was a big adventure. Back in the school 2 more families were waiting for us: the first family wanted us to baptize their son a very beautiful baby that received the name of Cristobal and of course all ceremonies in Q’eros start by sharing the ”huatia” and “chacchando” (chewing) coca leafs. I received the leafs and I kept them as they told me that if I had never chewed them I could get dizzy and even faint or vomit, when I was to say something to my children I looked back and I saw Julieta my oldest daughter chacchando coca leafs with all simplicity as if she had always done it ☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☺☺ ☺☺☺☺ Jajajaja!!!!!! I looked at her with such a face that she just said: But mummy this is not wrong!!!- The other 2 families asked us to become the godmothers of their children Anik and Saúl so we proceeded to perform 2 more “ratachi”, 2 more “huatias” and 2 more chacchadas. When we finished with all the ceremonies we realized we had not organized our “camp” for the night so while our children got some hot mate and some dinner, we set up our “beds” and after paying a visit to the toilet and washing our teeth we fall slept completely extenuated until the following morning. Yago was the first one in waking up and started talking so he woke me up as well as Caetana my youngest daughter. We started getting ready, took some calm breakfast as we were going back to Cusco at 8:30 am
In the car in our way to ChuaChua
Warm cloths donated by all of You!!!
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The children kept coming into the school as it was a school day and, they also helped us to load our things into the car. We started to say goodbye, all the “mamachas” came to offer us some “pititas” (kind of bracelet) made by them that one has to tie in the wrists, they also gifted us with some handmade handbags and they offered us a lot of “papas” (potatoes). Our van arrived and now it was official time to say goodbye, we left promising to still come back this year in December around Christmas time.”
Diana Otoya Mendieta
Thank You Cusco We want to warmly thank the help and support received from:
Our youngest volunteers: Yago, Julieta and Caetana
M. Daniela Gygax
All the families and friends from Cusco and Lima for their support and
donations
Very specially thanks to the management and employees of the Andean
Wings Boutique Hotel of Cusco for their help and support
M. Hannah Rae Porst for her great work managing Willka Yachay, an
example of good work and integration of a NGO working with the Andean
communities from Nación Q’ero
ChuaChua heads of families
****** Q’EROS WEATHER EMERGENCY ******
Four days of low temps, heavy snow and freezing rain are causing dangerous hardships for Q’eros villagers at 14,500 feet. Willka Yachay seeks to purchase and distribute boots, jackets, blankets, sweaters, and food supplies. To contribute, please send an email to: [email protected] or visit: www.willkayachay.org/donate
Thank you for your support.
©Picture Hannah Rae Porst
www.willkayachay.org/donate
www.andeanwingshotel.com
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Our next activities
Our next activities:
SEPTEMBER:
Switzerland:
Our next activity will be in Ticino on Sunday the 27th of September Chaka-Runa will be part of the First Latin-American Festival in Ticino with an informative stand as well as a gastronomic stand where you will be able of discovering delicious and typical dishes from Peru. The event is organized by the Ticinian association “Camino Cultural” with whom we have started to collaborate in order to promote the Latin-American culture in the Italian Switzerland. On Sunday the 27th of September, from 10 am to 14 pm we expect seeing you in the Alto Malcantone for a total immersion in the Latin-American culture and in its many different artistic expressions a long a beautiful walk between Bedigliora and Novaggio (near to Lugano) with dances, music, gastronomy and different expressions of plastic arts made by Latin-American and Swiss artists. On top of it 5 Swiss NGOs/associations actives in Latin-America will also offer traditional dishes from Argentina, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Mexico. The total amount of the collected money will be distributed between the participating NGOs/associations. In order to organize this event as best as possible you are requested to confirm your participation sending a message to: [email protected]
If you want to support us with the organization of the event please also
contact Romina Fenaroli at: [email protected]
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You can also support us!
-Participating in our Events
-Following us on Facebook, Twitter and/or our Blog
-Volunteering in our different programs
-Fundraising for us
-Becoming our Sponsor
-Donating monthly via PayPal (Please visit our web)
-Do you have ideas? We would love to hear from you!
OCTOBER
Cusco (Peru)
With the aim to launch our “Twinning Schools” Project our team in Cusco will
get reinforced with the arrival of our Operations & Strategy Director who will
stay for some months in Cusco and in the Valley in order to evaluate the
real needs of the populations and collectives we aim to support as well as
in order to get to meet other projects and NGOs working in the area.
If you are interested in working with us, please contact us:
NOVEMEBER and DECEMBER
We will keep you posted on our different activities in Christmas and New
Year
Follow us
Web & Blog: http://chaka-runa.org
Chakarunango
Chaka-Runa NGO
@ChakaRunaNGO