Heart Walk Foundation

Current Projects

Schools for Remote Villages
Culture and Health Center
Land Rights and Land Security
Cultural Preservation
Micro-enterprises

SCHOOLS for REMOTE VILLAGES
Few children in the villages of the Q’eros Nation have ever seen a classroom, touched a book, or held a pencil. Their parents recognize that education of the children holds the greatest hope for the future of the entire community. The tiny hamlets of Hapu Q’eros are separated by steep mountains, hours apart by foot, so children cannot attend a central school. The solution is a one-room school in each hamlet. Because the government refuses to fund schools for these villages, they are entirely dependent on donations.

Yanaruma School
Recently opened through the efforts of Escuela Wiñaypaq, volunteer Rebecca Kinman is raising funds for this school. Please specify if you want to support this school.

Huecco Uno School
Opened in May, 2008, the Huecco Uno School represents a collaborative effort of parents and children from several regional communities. The curriculum integrates Andean life with fundamental education skills and includes workshops for parents in nutrition, hygiene, health, and sustainable agriculture practices.

Cochemarka School
Heart Walk Foundation hopes to fund a school for this hamlet before the end of 2008 with $5000 startup funds for desks, chairs, supplies, books, and a teacher. Please specify if you want to help open this school.

Books about the Q’ero Nation
Children of Hapu Q’eros composed stories about life in their village through a special grant from Heart Walk Foundation. These bilingual books in Quechua and Spanish will be printed in the summer of 2008 and distributed to the schools.

CULTURE AND HEALTH CENTER
2008 goal: $10,000 for pharmacy production equipment and agricultural supplies

With the success of our January 2008 fundraiser, HWF is able to expand this exciting long-term project. You, the donors, have provided this mutual self-help inter-community cooperative center that is becoming a model of cultural sensitivity, ecological sustainability, and cooperation among 25 indigenous villages. The project’s activities include:

promoting and sustaining indigenous culture and traditions

making plant-based medicines and medicinal gardens

providing monthly health clinics for rural villages with no other medical services

increasing food security through sustainable agriculture and greenhouses

improving nutrition and health through training, seed exchanges, and kitchen hygiene

supporting wholistic and culturally sensitive bilingual education (Quechua-Spanish)

generating income from sales of native handicrafts, weavings, honey, plant medicines, and other native and organic foods

strengthening micro-enterprises in the villages through workshops and trainings

providing service opportunities for visiting volunteers

LAND RIGHTS and LAND SECURITY
Establishment of the Q’ero Cultural and Ecological Reserve
2008-2009 goal: $20,000

The Q’ero Tribes urgently need to secure their ancestral lands against foreign commercial extraction of their natural resources, including taking of their water, strip mining, and logging, that would permanently displace them from their own lands. HWF is committed to assist in the funding the legal expenses to establish an ecological and cultural reserve, where the land and people are protected from exploitation.

MICRO-ENTERPRISES and SUSTAINABILITY: projects of the Ayllus Association of Cuzco2008 goal: $10,000

Heart Walk Foundation funds activities of the Ayllus Association of Cuzco. This alliance of indigenous villages promotes a variety of community-based activities for economic and agricultural sustainability that are environmentally sound and culturally sensitive, including:

Sales of traditional textiles to tourists at the ayllus Association store in Cusco
Training traditional weavers in highest quality techniques and use of vegetal dyes
Developing bee keeping for honey production to replace purchase of sugar
Production of medicinal plants as medicines for health and income
Development of a carpentry workshop
Providing maternal and childbirth health care and education
Training in agricultural sustainability

CULTURAL PRESERVATION: Q’ero Memory Project:
2008-2009 goal: $5000

Modern social and economic conditions exert tremendous pressure on traditional communities. At risk of being lost forever include the fabric of Q’ero life: the stories and shared history that bind the people; knowledge of medicinal plants; and the cultural and spiritual values, traditions, and practices rooted in centuries past. Heart Walk Foundation is promoting the preservation of earth-honoring traditions through a multi-faceted Q’ero Memory Project. Villagers are recording the knowledge, stories, and history of the elders. The children are creating booklets about their village life. All activities are conducted by community members as agreed by the community as a whole. The materials belong to the people and will not be disseminated without their permission.

Upcoming Events
Travel-Service Trips
Volunteer Opportunities
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Thanks to so many supporters, our 2008 live auction raised over $16,000 for health and education projects in the Andes Mountains.

Help us build a better world
with tax-deductible donations.
501(c)3 charity
ID # 20-1918290.

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