Dear Friends and Family of Wiraqocha Foundation:

I want to bring to your attention a new program by Wiraqocha Foundation to truly help make more bridges between our culture and the Q'ero, allowing the  Q'ero and us to evolve together into a better society. There is a strong desire and need in Q'eros for a more expanded education for the kids.  One idea is to mainstream them into the Peruvian School System--a more Western type of education--that does not necessarily incorporate the value system of their culture.

We here in Hawaii, have a unique view into this problem as Native Hawaiian kids were put into the mainstream Western school system and had a lot of problems to succeed due to the clash of cultural framework.  The learning we went through was to redesign Charter Schools based on HAWAIIAN cultural values, respect for the AINA--the LAND--a connectedness to Nature as a spiritual source.
There is fantastic Charter School here on the BIg Island that is based on Hawaiian Values system of HONORING NATURE and Seeing a relationship between humans and nature as FUNDAMENTAL....i.e., all the kids offer chants and prayers to Mother Earth asking permission to enter the sacred grounds of the school each day and permission to receive the wisdom of the Elders (teachers). Quite a different way to start your school  day than OUR western school system.
I went to the principal of this school asking for help for our kids from Q'ero....but she is already underfunded and has 130 Hawaiian kids on the waiting list...while they were very sympathetic and interested in the idea, at most they could only take 1 or 2 kids if that!

My frustration led me back to  the old adage...."if you can't get someone to do it you just have to do it yourself"

Here at our farm in Hawaii we have spent this year creating our own HOME SCHOOL HUI--a group of kids with us parents as teachers taking turns, designing our own curriculum, we even built our own classroom here on our farm.  Our first year is only half over and our self-created program is AWESOME!!!!! The kids are BLOSSOMING and all us Parents are delighted.

Here on our own farm, with some funding and a lot of our own elbow grease, we could take 6 kids from Q'ero to spend a full year with 6 of our kids from Hawaii, learning, sharing, and teaching each other in an environment that would be comfortable for them.  We have certified multi-age teachers both for the classroom and for the ESL courses the Q'ero kids would need before starting school, and we have Native Hawaiian Elders willing to come and teach the kids not only Hawaiian Language but also cultural knowledge.  We will also bring two Q'ero parents/teachers over to help take care of the kids and make them feel more at home. These Q'ero parent-teachers would also be trained in a curriculum developed by the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education--next meeting set for 2011 in CUZCO!--to help Native people implement education in the 21st century that is based in their own traditions, cultural values, and can be carried out in their own lands, giving respect and dignity to the Q'ero Lands and traditions we ALL LOVE SO MUCH!

We want this to be only a first step in creating a truly sustainable school, educational exchange program, training new cultural bridge kids and leaders that will be equipped to deal with what our future holds due to their educational experience.  We want to develop a program that could serve many more kids in the future including Western, Hawaiian, and Q'ero kids.
We have already raised $25,000 for this program but we estimate we will need at least another $75 to $100K to run the program for one year- including getting plane tickets, visas etc and supplying teachers, health insurance coverage, dental, vision, for the kids and adults while they are here.
If ANYONE Can supply us with FUNDING SOURCES or any personal donations toward this program please contact me ASAP.
We are grateful for anyway in which you could contribute to this vision coming true!  All donations are tax deductible! please contact me for further information.
Thanks for taking the time out to read this and please feel free to share thiS with others!