Quechua Benefit’s Listening Tour By

Mike Safley

Quechua Benefit conducted the listening tour as part of our Healthy Communities initiative as well as the creation of our Case for Support, which is to be published soon. The team included Cassondra Puls (Associate

Consultant, Education) and Dr. Jose Mosquera (Executive Consultant, Public Health) from PASS, an international strategic consultancy that partners with social initiatives around the world to reach shared global

goals.

The tour took place in remote Andean communities that Quechua Benefit has long served and included board members Dale Cantwell and Mike Safley, and Casa Chapi School Director Sue Regier.

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Picotani sets on the rooftop of the world, supported by 50,000 Alpaca and 10,000 Vicuna. Very few gringos ever visit the small village. The road that leads to the community is itself a dead end. Once you reach the guard house at the entrance, you will more than likely be greeted by a Quechua man with a gun draped over his shoulder and the word vicuña printed in bold yellow letters across the back of his military vest.

About 15 years ago, Quechua Benefit was doing a dental mission in the nearby small town of Muñani. We were busy pulling teeth when the leader of Picotani showed up to ask if we could spend a day seeing families in his community. I told him I was sorry but our schedule was full and we would soon be making the six-hour drive to Macusani. The man then asked if we would come if they performed a vicuña chaccu for the dental team. Our team was thrilled by this prospect and eager to adjust our timeline to spend a day in Picotani. I told him we would be there at 7 a.m. the next day.

After a very bumpy two-hour drive, hundreds of men, women and children eagerly awaited our arrival so that we could begin the chaccu ceremony. We rounded up more than 1,000 vicuña and pulled more teeth than we could count, not

returning back to Muñani until long after dark. We enjoyed an unforgettable experience and forged many friendships that day. We have returned every year since.

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In February 2017, the Quechua Benefit team embarked on a listening tour to develop our new Healthy Communities initiative. Our mission was simple: we were simply there to listen. We had visited the eight communities on our tour many times, but we had never been there with the intention of asking what their hopes, fears and needs are. We had always come with our own ideas of what was good for them.

When we arrived in Picotani, the community leader said, “I am not quite sure why you are here.” Even though our objective had been clearly explained weeks earlier, he gave me a quizzical look and was clearly confused. I said, “Gringos usually do all of the talking. We’ve been friends for many years, and I thought it was time we to listen to you.” That brought a hearty laugh and seemed to break the ice.

The focus group of about a dozen people included community leaders, both men and women. Dr. Jose Mosquera, an international public health expert supporting our team, led the discussion. Every time someone said something, he wrote it on a poster on the wall. The group was reluctant at first, but when they saw we were truly interested in listening to them, the opinions poured forth.

Dr. Mosquera repeated this exercise at four community centers to groups that included representatives from eight towns. The answers from each community were a little different, but most of them fell into the following categories. Here is what the community leaders said they needed:

• Preventive medicine. Their first answer was a surprise – they wanted preventative medicine for their alpaca and vicuna that were dying from enterotoxaemia and parasites. We asked, “What about the parasites and anemia affecting their children?” And one man replied, “We need help for our children as well, but if the alpaca die, none of us eat.”

• Women’s health. In our first meeting, the women were so shy that they hardly spoke up at all. Quechua Benefit’s Sue Regier noticed this silence and arranged to meet with the women separately, thinking they would be more open without the presence of men. She asked, “How are women’s health needs different from the health needs of the overall community?” They answered simply, “Men don’t have babies.” The conversation that followed was robust. Women asked questions about family planning, nursing, emergency care during difficult births, postpartum nutrition, and the effectiveness of prenatal vitamins.

• Education. Everyone wanted access to quality education for their children, but the topic of education was eagerly expanded. They were interested in adult classes covering nutrition, personal hygiene, family health, animal breeding, and animal husbandry. Quechua Benefit board member Dale Cantwell asked, “When was the last time you had alpaca veterinarians come to work with your animals or offer training?” They thought for a while and responded, “About 8 years ago, some government officials came and conducted a few classes. We have not seen anyone since.”

• Economics. Every community asked for guidance to receive better prices for their fleece. They explained that the men who bought their annual production often loaned them money during the year for necessities such as rice, kerosene, and cooking oil. The interest rates were upwards of 40%. Come shearing time, they repaid the loans and were back where they started: dirt poor.

Quechua Benefit has learned a lot since beginning in Macusani in 1996. The worldwide alpaca community poured out their hearts and gave generously in hopes that they might change people’s lives for the better. We learned how to conduct complex medical missions, support orphanages, feed people, and build a school. But the largest lesson we learned is that the world is nonsensically unjust and unfair. The people of Picotani, who tirelessly protect the most valuable fiber-producing animals in the world, are lucky if they make three dollars a day per person. And this is much more than the average alpaca shepherding family.

The Quechua people are rawhide tough, intelligent, and dedicated. Just like you, they want a better life for their children, and they are constantly looking for a brighter path. I think, to some degree, they are poor because they are simply forgotten. They are not a population that institutional medicine, large corporations, pharmaceutical companies, or elite bankers can profit from. And because of this, they are ignored.

Quechua Benefit has been reshaping its mission in Peru. The principles are simple:

• We are listening and we have no desire to duplicate any available services. We want our contributions to the communities to be unique and the results to be quantifiable.

• We want a partner relationship with any community that we serve. We want to walk beside them, accompany them, help them realize their dreams but not lead them. We will provide assistance that the community wants or needs, and in turn the community should be willing to contribute to the costs of projects.

• We intend to work on holistic solutions that include community health, economic empowerment, and education. This is what our Healthy Communities initiative is about.

• Each program must be sustainable, operated primarily by Peruvian people, and supported by Peruvian institutions, such as the Ministry of Education and Health.

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The listening tour gave Quechua Benefit a clearer vision for our work in 2017. The following activities will flow directly from listening to the people we met.

• In partnership with the Peruvian Ministry of Health, Quechua Benefit will conduct deworming clinics at each school in 15 Colca Valley towns. Our first series of clinics found that an average of 33% of the children had iron deficiency anemia, which resulted from intestinal parasites.

• The deworming campaign will be expanded to include the highland communities of Picotani and Corani. These districts care for a total of 125,000 alpacas.

• In total, these campaigns will treat more than 5,000 children and 10,000 adults.

• In July, Quechua Benefit will partner with the Nunoa Project, to bring veterinary training to the community of Picotani.

• The Healthy Communities initiative will also begin offering classes on nutrition, personal hygiene, and women’s health in conjunction with the deworming missions.

The meeting in the town hall began breaking up when Anthony, Picotani’s elected leader, invited us to tour the small pueblo. He drove us straight to a breathtakingly beautiful outcropping of towering rock. We huffed and puffed our way to the top of the mountain that towers 15,000 feet above sea level and overlooks Picotani. When we reached the summit, he said to the group, “This is where the Apu of Picotani lives and looks over the safety of our animals. He guards over our families, and now he looks over you, as you too are a member of our community. Thank you for listening.

A Nunoa Project veterinary team will make visits to 3 communities in Picotani this July as the start of a partnership with Quechua Benefit to provide training in animal breeding and husbandry. Initial evaluations of herds will allow us to identify problem areas so that we may formulate plans to respond to producer’s animal health concerns.