Hot Showers for Every Q'ero Family - Heart Walk Foundation

Bringing Sanitation to Mountain Homes

This year Heart Walk Foundation funded an incredible sanitation project that brought solar showers and composting toilets to 59 families across three Q’ero communities. Thanks to the amazing fundraising efforts of Hailey and Savvy Madsen, families in Yanaruma, Ccochamarca, and Hapu now enjoy the health benefits and dignity of private sanitation facilities.

This Giving Tuesday, You can help expand the Sanitation and Solar Shower Project to the community of Quico. With your help, all families in this region can have access to dignified sanitation facilities at home.

The beneficiaries of the 2026 Sanitation Project will be those living in Quico—a community of 75 families that have watched with joy as their neighbors’ lives were transformed and now hope for their own transformation. The Municipality of Paucartambo will have running water installed to each home by year’s end, making this vital sanitation project possible.

A Proven Blueprint for Success

Many visitors to Q’eros have praised Heart Walk Foundation’s sanitation projects in Yanaruma, Ccochamarca, and Hapu.

“I almost couldn’t believe it when I saw the showers for the first time. You all did such a good job, and the people seemed so happy.” — Alice Mao, Founder, United Cosmos Foundation

“On my last visit, I noticed how clean and proud the community members were. Their clothes were fresh, and the women and girls wore beautiful, clean braids.” — Alvaro Obiedo, Bertha’s assistant

Expedition team evaluating the 2025 project for the first time in Yanaruma, July 2025.

Living and Trusting in Ayni

The Andean concept of Ayni is one of the most fundamental principles of life in Q’eros. It is often translated as “reciprocity”, but its meaning is much deeper — it reflects a sacred balance and mutual interdependence. Ayni is how communities survive in harsh mountain environments.

This year’s project was successful thanks to the contributions of everyone — including the residents of Quico, who offered labor and adobes to their neighbors in Yanaruma, even though they were not direct recipients of the project. These families trust in the blessings that are yet to come. They trust in the sacred balance, and they trust in you — their friends of the Q’ero Nation.

We credit this sacred circle of reciprocity — of giving and receiving — as the heart and driving force behind the success of our projects. We invite you to join us in giving, and in trusting in the blessings yet to come.

December 2nd is Giving Tuesday

You can give the gift of dignity and health to the families of Quico by joining us in our Sanitation and Solar Showers Campaign. You can make hygiene and dignified living possible for so many. Everyone deserves to have access to private, safe sanitation facilities.