More equal opportunities for indigenous people in Peru

Pukllasunchis works with indigenous schoolchildren and teachers at rural schools in the Cusco region. The children tell stories about their everyday lives and traditions, which are recorded and broadcast as radio programmes. These radio programmes reach many listeners in the region, for example at the market in Cusco. The teachers themselves undergo further training at Pukllasunchis in bilingual and intercultural teaching.

FENAMAD supports indigenous young people from the Amazon region in secondary school and with further studies in the city by providing accommodation, educational and psychological support as well as strengthening their self-confidence and personal skills.

More equal opportunities for indigenous people in Peru

The indigenous population in Peru continues to be severely disadvantaged in terms of access to education and in the education system itself. Our two partner organisations in Peru (Pukllasunchis in Cusco and FENAMAD in Puerto Maldonado) are committed to providing indigenous children and young people with better opportunities for their future. This involves providing concrete support for individual educational pathways as well as improving intercultural teaching.

Pukllasunchis works with indigenous schoolchildren and teachers at rural schools in the Cusco region. The children tell stories about their everyday lives and traditions, which are recorded and broadcast as radio programmes. These radio programmes reach many listeners in the region, for example at the market in Cusco. The teachers themselves undergo further training at Pukllasunchis in bilingual and intercultural teaching.

Photo report from projects in Peru

At school, the children work together to create the stories for the radio programmes. They tell legends and describe customs and everyday life from their lives in Quechua. For the recording of the radio programmes, they perform these stories as plays. The finished programmes are broadcast and are very popular. Nerio Cruz Mamani: “I like the way my voice sounds on the radio. My mum was very proud when she heard me. Thanks to the radio recordings, I’ve become braver and dare to speak out elsewhere”.

The teachers are proud of their students and how they create the radio programmes. The project strengthens them as a group, gives their indigenous origin a positive meaning and makes them participate more attentively in class and get involved. The classes also listen to stories from other communities together and talk about them. The radio programmes as well as other creative and playful activities are effective methods in bilingual intercultural teaching.

Teachers and Pukllasunchis staff discuss the project work. The project would not work without the commitment and conviction of the teachers. They are the ones who implement and promote bilingual and intercultural teaching. Miluska Hurtado de Mendoza (left): “It’s wonderful when children discover talents and when they realise that their way of life and their everyday lives have a place in school. They gain important experiences and learn skills for their future. It’s very satisfying to accompany them in this process and to learn a lot myself”.

Secondary school students from the indigenous communities in the Madre de Dios region have to go to the city of Puerto Maldonado for further studies. Interested young people can find out about the various training opportunities at the careers fair. Most of them have made an arduous journey of several days. If they decide to study, they have to move away from home and find their way around the city. Thanks to the support of FENAMAD, the move is easier for the young people and their parents.

Indigenous young people from various villages and ethnic groups live and work at Casa Miraflores during their studies. They organise their everyday lives together and are supported by specialists in psychological matters as well as with additional lessons and creative workshops. The young people come to terms with their indigenous identity and their origins and how they would like to shape their future.

Rogelio Rodriguez trained as a teacher for bilingual education in Puerto Maldonado and lived in Casa Miraflores during this time. After completing his studies, he returned to his home village of Santa Teresita, where he teaches Spanish and Yine, his mother tongue, to children from Year 3 to Year 6 at primary school.

Bilingual Radio

Bilingual Radio

In Cusco, Peru, indigenous children produce bilingual and intercultural radio programmes at school. They are thus actively involved in the teaching process, which strengthens their self-confidence, consolidates their knowledge of their mother tongue and makes them deal with their cultural origins. The radio programmes are broadcast through regional radio stations and make the voices of the children and the indigenous communities heard in the media. At the same time, they serve as intercultural teaching material since the children listen to and discuss the radio programmes of other schools. The Pukllasunchis radio project makes an important contribution to cultural equality in school education.

Photo report about the project in Peru

At a school in Chillihuani, a class is recording a radio programme. The children often present the stories they are telling as plays with costumes and props. This recording is about a traditional ritual of the indigenous sheep farmers.

The participation in these programmes strengthens the children both as a group and as well as individuals. Besides taking responsibility for the joint radio programme and consolidating their knowledge of their mother tongue, they also have a lot of fun.

The teacher is enthusiastic about the radio project and enjoys supporting her pupils. She has attended a further training course at Pukllasunchis and has got to know new teaching methods: her lessons are now participative, she uses visual learning aids, the classroom is colourful and there is a pleasant learning atmosphere.

Ermelinda goes to this school and she really likes recording the radio programmes. The class develops the programme as a co-production: they decide on the topic, think about the sequence and distribute the roles. Every child has a say and can contribute something.

Henry goes to a rural school in Ccoñamuro. He and his classmates regularly produce radio programmes. Here, Henry is talking about his everyday life and the traditional ceremonies he performs together with his family. The radio programmes are listened to by other classes and the content is discussed.

The school Henry attends is very small and most of the children speak Quechua. Their mothers take turns preparing the lunch, which the children then eat together.

At home, Henry has to look after the guinea pigs.

Like many other people in the community, his family breeds and sells guinea pigs (cuy), which are a popular food in Peru. In addition, most families own a piece of land and some cows.

Constantino at work at the Ausangate radio station. It is located in Quispicanchi in the Cusco region and is one of the places where the radio programmes are broadcast from.

They reach many indigenous families in the country and in the city. The broadcasts have a high value because they bring information about other regions and strengthen the sense of community.

In a training session for teachers at Pukllasunchis, Yovana Huanca Huallparimachi is presenting the many facets of the radio project in the classroom. The teachers learn a lot about bilingual and bicultural education that they can put into practice afterwards. They find it motivating to see considerable changes in the students, who become more self-confident and participate more actively in class after working on the radio project.

At school events the students present their various projects to proud parents and other interested parties.

In Chillihuani, these include, for example, designing maps of the surrounding area with the important natural resources, making presentations of the history and culture of the region and, of course, producing the said radio programmes.

Since the beginning of the Corona crisis, schools in Peru have been closed. Especially for indigenous families in the country, it is impossible to ensure digital access to schooling for their children. They lack electronic devices and access to the internet. Pukllasunchis has worked with teachers to develop teaching materials for online distance learning and school lessons for radio. Children with access to mobile phones and the internet have been able to contribute to these lessons. They have sent video and audio recordings of the school topics to Pukllasunchis, which has then made them available to other students via the internet and radio. In this way, the organization has reached many children in rural areas who otherwise would have had no access to education during this time. Additional radio programmes have served to give information about Corona by means of the character of Capitán Jabón (Captain Soap) (https://redsisicha.home.blog).

Indigenous People raise their Voices

For centuries the indigenous people and their culture have been discriminated against in Peru. This suppression has lasted until today, above all in the educational system and in the media. This is where the radio project of Pukllasunchis comes in. Together with schools and women’s groups it produces bilingual radio programmes in Quechua and Spanish. By using the radio programmes in class children are taught in an interactive and creative way and induced to deal with the indigenous world view.

Indigenous People raise their Voices

Photos Christian Jaeggi

Photo report about the project in Peru

School in Tiracancha, Peru: José interviews Dania. Dania explains in Quechua the meaning of water in her everyday life, in her village and in the indigenous vision of the cosmos. The interview is later broadcasted on the radio.

Her classmates complement Dania’s story. They wear costumes to slip completely into their roles as frogs. The children choose the contents of their broadcasts themselves and implement their ideas in a very creative way.

Dania lives in Tiracancha, a little village in the Peruvian Andes. Mountains, rivers, corn and all of nature have a very important meaning here.

At home, Dania speaks Quechua with her parents and siblings.

At school, Dania and her classmates listen to bilingual programmes of other classes and regions. After the radio transmissions they discuss different aspects, themes and customs. The broadcasts are an important basis for the teachers to offer intercultural lessons.

Classes in Dania’s school were mainly held in Spanish up to now despite the fact that Dania and her classmates speak Quechua with each other and at home. Thanks to the radio project the teachers use both Quechua and Spanish in most of their lessons and integrate indigenous knowledge into their teaching.

Students and teachers present their broadcasts to the parents. The students regularly make interviews with members of the community while producing their radio broadcasts. Therefore the school is better taken note of by the parents and the community and plays a more important role. As a consequence the children’s school attendance has increased.

Victoria Hualla und Segundina Arroní are live on air today. Victoria Hualla has been educated as a radio speaker by Pukllasunchis. For her broadcasts Victoria Hualla involves the inhabitants of Santa Rosa. The broadcasts are in Quechua.

Victoria Hualla is part of a women’s group in Santa Rosa. In her broadcasts she gives an important voice to the women of Santa Rosa. This year the group has chosen to focus on the protection of the ecosystem of the Andes in their radio transmissions.

Victoria Hualla lives with her husband Alipio and their two children close to Santa Rosa. As a radio speaker Victoria is often out and about. Alipio is very proud of her job and her engagement in the women’s group.

Emiliano Ramos is telling a story from the Andes in the recording studio of Pukllasunchis. He is 76 years old.

Ysabel Palomino Gutiérrez, radio speaker and co-worker at Pukllasunchis advises Mr. Ramos how his story could sound better. Raul records the story and generally puts the final touches on the sound recordings of the children and the women’s groups.

The next radio programme is completed. Ysabel is handing over the recordings to the broadcast station Santa Monica in Cusco.

Local and regional radios broadcast the programmes of Pukllasunchis. Pukllasunchis has an agreement with different broadcast stations in the cities and in the country.

Alejandro Flores Guerra is the director of the broadcast station Nueva Vida de Tiracancha.

Pukllasunchis produces the programmes “Sisichakunaq Pukllaynin”, “The Antplay” for kids and Quiñi Quiñicha, “Hot and cold” for adults.

The programs of Pukllasunchis are very popular in the cities as well as in the country. At Ms. Marcelina Paukar Puna’s market stall in the centre of Cusco the programmes are broadcasted every day. The clients are enthusiastic about the programmes of Pukllasunchis.

The broadcasts also facilitate the work on the fields. Mr. Ipolito Huanaco can now listen to his favourite broadcasts in his mother tongue. In addition he appreciates the information about agriculture in the programmes of Pukllasunchis. He gets to know how farmers in other regions of the country cultivate their land.

The broadcasts of Pukllasunchis are also regularly listened to at work on the salt terraces. The radio still plays an important role in Peru. Especially in such remote areas it is the means of communication people use to keep informed.