Giving Back – Pachamama Raymi
One of my experiences working with rural communities in Peru was in a little village a couple hours outside of the Sacred Valley at 15,000 ft. It’s truly amazing the way of life in the Andes. The village hadn’t experienced volunteer tourism before and we utilized interpreters to translate from Quechua to Spanish.
When we recently built a relationship with Pachamama Raymi, we realized their organization is exactly in line with Stone Expedition’s intent to make a difference in the developing world.
Since 2006, Pachamama breaks the cycle of environmental degradation and rural poverty. Their reach has been predominantly in the Cusco region and they have had to pull back on operations in Tanzania and Nepal due to a lack of funding.
Their methodology consists of two components: Peer Learning and Motivation.
With peer learning they insert their expert farmers into rural communities to further educate village members, enabling them to develop businesses within the first year. They learn to produce vegetable gardens, guinea pig sheds, fish farms and work on preventative health and home improvement. Additionally their involvement within the town’s infrastructure helps to combat alcoholism and violence.
Each family is responsible for planting 3,000 trees to help with afforestation and families spend time in partnering communities to learn from each other’s strengths. Prizes are administered to communities that excel in their overall growth to act as an incentive to perform every six months.
Pachamama spends three years with each village to reassure that growth occurs from the programs. It is a proactive step in the fight against global warming and rural poverty.
Check out Pachamama Raymi here
