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Cusco, Peru

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Cultural Context

Cusco, Peru is home to the Incas, a civilization that thrived on its relationship with mother earth. The knowledge, wisdom and practices that the Incas had could be on par with some of the advanced western sustainability technologies of today.

Through the centuries, many of these have been lost, and some have been passed down as mere stories.

Today, Cusco is a city that is mostly dependent on tourism, though there is mining and construction also. While the city faces environmental degradation, the youth of Cusco are limited to job opportunities that are not economically or ecologically sustainable.

Like other small cities across the world, Cusco youths leave to larger cities in order to seek more promising work. There is a need, and opportunity, to support local efforts that are addressing ecological degradation and social injustice while engaging youth voices in these local solutions. 
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White Flags

As a result of COVID-19, Cusco is experiencing difficult times since most of the tourists industry has stopped.

In the outskirts of the city and rural areas, people have put up white flags outside their homes to indicate that they lack food.


The Story: Casa Ayni

During the spring of 2020 we engaged with a range of community members (Cuéntame Cusco). The history of Cusco embodies ancient wisdom and sustainable practices.

One of the organizations we engaged with was Casa Ayni (which means cooperation in Quechua, house of cooperation). Headed by Gabriela, Casa Ayni buildings capacity with rural communities by hosting tourist and volunteers to assist the communities. The cultural exchange also includes learning languages, games, food, ways of living.
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As a result of COVID-19, Gabriela has refocused her work to teaching online Spanish classes. With most of the tourism gone, she is working to support her family.

Gabriela will utilize part of her earning from the Spanish classes to continue to support the communities that Casa Ayni serves.

The Project


We are going to support Gabriela, so that Casa Ayni can continue to support and build capacity.

How

As you may know, we are just getting started with Sol Stories, so we don't have all of our infrastructure built out yet. This is why we will be utilizing Go Fundme.

That being said, after speaking with Gabriela, we have come up with a tier approach to reach her goal of $5k. She is able to teach 180 classes (1 hr each) until the end of 2020.

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How

1. Go to the Go Fundme page for this project
2. Donate the amount of classes you are looking to get (for example: donate $210 for 10 classes). More class details at the end of the section.
3. Submit your contact information, learning goals, and needs here.
4. Gabriela will get in touch with you and schedule your first 1 hr class!
DONATE HERE
What if I don't want to take classes?

We get it, learning a language takes commitment.

We would appreciate if you are able to please make a donation. If you are not able to give, please share this opportunity on social media!

Impact


We look at measuring all of our crowdfunding stories through the lens of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.   All the local community support adds up to huge impact as we crowdfund globally to support those most in need going directly to the people that can make sustainable impact.

- UN SDG 2:  Zero Hunger.   Your donation helps the food insecure during COVID-19 in Peru

- UN SDG 8:  Decent Work and Economic Growth:  Tourism is key for many countries economic growth.  During COVID-19, your donation is supporting a Peruvian local organization, Casa Ayni, to stay in business.

- UN SDG 11:  Sustainable Communities:  Empowering local people with support to build sustainable systems during interruptions.

- UN SDG 17:  Partnerships for Goals:  Sol Stories is crowdfunding globally with local partners like Casa Ayni that have local solutions to global sustainability challenges.  Crowdfunding is normally your own peer network where we reach beyond those lines to connect people to causes that have direct impact on people's lives. 

Sol Stories

We at Sol Stories are excited to work with Casa Ayni for our first project! If you are signing up for classes we thought we may remind you of a few things!

We ask all parties to act with patience and kindness in the scheduling of time, Spanish lessons, and cultural exchange to learn from each other.  While Gabriela does have access to internet, this is a learning experience that both can mutually benefit.  Remember both parties need to tend to their basic needs for their community as first priority.

Clearly these communities need further support, and this project is only a start to analyze the systems and identify our larger role to build capacity. We hope that you will support us on this and future projects to come. Please reach out to us if you would like different accommodations, and we will do our best to both give you a meaningful experience as well as support the mission and vision of Sol Stories.

Got a story?

Are you aware of people doing amazing work in the developing world? We would love to hear their story. We are currently looking for future project to take on, so this is great time to get in touch with us.

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