Chalhuanca is a small village in the altiplano of Peru. At 4,300 it is very cold and the air is thin. Chalhuanca is a village of approximately 800 people with a K - 12 school for 150 students.
Chalhuanca village
Chalhuanca is situated approximately 3 hours from Arequipa and 2 hours from Chivay, the access city for the Colca Canyon. Many tourists visit the Colca Canyon, but Chalhuanca is not on the tourist road, so the only tourists who visit are those with special programs prepared by Intitour Pty Ltd who are village sponsors. http://www.intitour.com/
Intitour and some of it clients established Friends of Chalhuanca, a Not for Profit organization in 2010 to encourage sponsorship to improve conditions in the village and the school.
Chalhuanca village in winter
Friends of Chalhuanca and Intitour have already provided the school with 6 computers and various other school supplies, medical supplies, blankets and basic foodstuffs. Children and adults alike are always in need of warm clothing as the climate is very harsh.
A typical rural house and corral
Manuel Cayllahua, a student from Chalhuanca was brought to Australia for 4 months thanks to the generosity of Friends of Chalhuanca, Intitour, Carraragarmungee Primary School and the Rotary Club of Milawa Oxley
Chalhuanca School
Friends of Chalhuanca and the Milawa Oxley Rotary Club have built a low ropes course for the school. You can see photos of it but going to the Low Ropes Course tab at the top of this page.
School assembly
The Rotary Clubs of Milawa Oxley, Australia together with Ciudad Blanca, Arequipa Peru have funded an interactive white board that is currently in use at the school.
A large project that we've been working on is the building of an auditorium room for the school. The community has been providing the labour and many of the raw materials. The local municipality partnered with us to provide the remainder of the construction materials. Again, there is a special auditorium tab at the top of this page
Classrooms
An exciting new development is arranging for volunteers from Australia to stay in the village and help with maintenance of the ropes course and to teach English.
Girls in traditional dress performing a dance
Fruit typical of the region
A student learning to do machine embroidery
Typical handcrafts produced for tourist who visit the Colca Canyon
Terracing in the Colca Valley
A condor in the Colca Canyon
If you would like to help us with our projects, please contact us at friendsofchalhuanca@gmail.com or via Intitour. http://www.intitour.com/ or info@intitour.com or phone 03 51161727
Donations are welcome, bank details are: Bank Name MECU, Account name FRIENDS OF CHALHUANCA. BSB 313-140 Account number 12019188
FRIENDS OF CHALHUANCA INC A0055361L
