Kusi Kawsay Andean School Project

An Elementary School in the Peruvian Andes

Sponsored by Pachamama’s Path, Inc., a public charity under IRS § 501(c)(3) All contributions are tax deductible

Classroom Waldorf Inspired School Initiative based on Andean Traditions

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Downloadable PDF outlining Kusi Kawsay Elementary

Want to learn more about the Kusi Kawsay Andean School Project?

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Downloadable PDF Construction Presentation

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Pachamama's Path

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Mana Studios

Mana Studios collaborates with indigenous communities to express their knowledge and their struggles through online and video media. We engage our partners directly in the process of collection, documentation, and distribution with the ultimate goal of giving them the knowledge and equipment to independently produce their own media.

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Tax-deductible Contributions here

The Kusi Kawsay Educational Association is officially registered and legally recognized in Peru since March 2009.

Becoming Hummingbird: Charting Your Life Journey the Shaman’s WayBecoming Humminbird

Profits from the sale of Becoming Hummingbird are donated to the Kusi Quyllur community based school project in the high Andes of Peru.

Andean Ancestral Culture

The Andean ancestral culture as universal human heritage needs to be rescued, practiced and preserved. This ancestral culture is being destabilized by the impacts of commercialized mass media and by the official educational system, which diffuses values contrary to indigenous culture, thus contributing to the loss of identity so fundamental to socio-cultural development.

This panorama is exacerbated by the current, rampant process of economic globalization whose standardizations and ethnocentric conceptions of development threaten the cultural diversity of the planet, their natural resources and environment.

It is easy to see that in few years traditions, customs, celebrations, rituals, agrarian techniques, weaving techniques and normal daily life have suffered changes through the new social components, religious sect intromission, experimental government politics, new language, economical crisis, as well as the use of new materials such as synthetic products.

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To this day the official educational system has a fundamental impact on traditional life. The tremendous exodus to towns and cities in search of a better education has a huge effect on traditional communities. They leave their community and receive an education that denigrates their heritage, and relays ethe message that to be successful one must be a “professional”, which implies never returning to their homeland. Knowledge through higher education is rarely put to practice in the traditional communities.

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