The Chijnaya Foundation Board of Directors announced today that Executive Director Kimmy Mazza will step down from the organization in early 2023.

As 2022 comes to an end, we send you heartfelt thanks for your generosity and commitment to the Quechua communities of the Peruvian altiplano. In this newsletter we highlight the ways your support is increasing equitable access to higher education and financial self-reliance.

The community of Jallahua (Puno) that belongs to the Pro-DIA Network has been working with us since 2014 on rural development projects through the Rotating Fund Program, which have been managed by its Board of Directors and other beneficiaries.

June is a month full of festivities and celebrations in the district of Pucara, including the commemoration of the district’s 194th anniversary of political creation. The authorities, institutions, organizations and local neighborhoods, as well as the population in general, dressed up for a party and participated in a series of activities that were scheduled during the month.

Thank you for your support of projects that create viable futures for the people of the altiplano. This year alone your gifts will provide 50 scholarships to students from rural communities, increase the capacity of 6 communities to combat childhood anemia, improve the oral health of 254 children in rural communities, and provide a sustainable source of capital for 166 people to invest in the improvement of their businesses.

In order to stimulate the local economy in the district of Pucara, a series of Livestock Fairs were organized. These events are of the utmost importance since they allow cattle, alpaca, and sheep breeders to offer their animals in the local market, thus allowing for future enhancement in the genetic quality of the offspring and increasing access to improved economic income for the population.

Asociación Wichay is an association of alpaca herders from 5 communities in the Puno region of Peru who are working to develop a sustainable hand-spun yarn business to create more viable economic opportunities within their traditional activities of alpaca herding. We are collaborating with this association to implement a project to protect and restore bofedales, the high-altitude wetlands that make alpaca herding possible, and that are disappearing due to climate change and economic pressure.