Quechua Benefit
Quechua Benefit is an organization dedicated to helping the Quechua people in the highlands of Peru.
These limited-edition Kuna shawls were special ordered because of Maria’s talent and inspiration. “I like Casa Chapi a lot because I am studying and learning many new things, like painting. I want to learn to paint better with new techniques.”
Casa Chapi Children’s Village was conceived, created and constructed with one thought in mind: children should be given the opportunity to dream, grow and prosper in a safe, loving environment. In the poverty-stricken communities of the Peruvian highlands, this ideal is often not attainable.
Kathy McConnell, from Canada, was on the annual Quechua Benefit Peru Tour this November. We were in Arequipa about to begin our adventure! We started with a visit to Quechua Benefit’s Casa Chapi school in Arequipa where our secondary students who have graduated from Casa Chapi in Chivay live.
The QB team is working hard to make this the best Christmas for the Casa Chapi kids. Help the children get everything on their wish list!
Over the past six months, we’ve instituted an intensive reading program to bring Casa Chapi’s kids up to speed so they can study at the same pace as other kids their age.
I don’t want to change anything about Casa Chapi. I love everything there. Especially I love the programs that they have. I hope more kids can go there, because Casa Chapi is a unique place where kids will enjoy there life and not be afraid of anything because Casa Chapi will protect them.
Ed Cain is a sophomore at Occidental College, majoring in Diplomacy and World Affairs. He volunteered his time teaching English at Casa Chapi this summer. He recalls the children of Casa Chapi as inquisitive, engaged, and mature. Read about his experience in his own words.
This year 25 children from Chalhuanca, an extremely isolated village at the end of a long, rough dirt road, traveled three hours to attend the camp at Casa Chapi. These are children who rarely, if ever, leave their village, so the trip itself was an adventure, not to mention sleeping overnight with the 70 kids housed at the school.
The pulse on the flight from Atlanta to Lima is livelier, more social than on USA domestic flights. A cacophony of language and laughter radiates through the air. Excited tourists mingle with home-going Peruvians amid a flurry of selling in for the six-hour flight. My seatmates are curious and friendly. They ask me why I’m headed to Peru and I explain that I help direct the education program at a school in the highlands – a school called Casa Chapi.
Through the generosity of longtime supporters of Quechua Benefit, Don and Julie Skinner, the Snowmass Community Health Clinic in Chivay will expand its operations to provide year-round dental care and eye exams for Colca Valley children, as well as prenatal care and ultrasounds for expectant mothers.
