T’ikary: An educational project for Quechua youth

In Peru, indigenous youth are presented with a difficult choice, either pursue their education or maintain close connections to their communities and culture. Quality education is still relatively inaccessible for most indigenous youth, thus trapping them in a cycle of poverty, those who do pursue further, or higher education usually leave their communities and do not come back. Mosqoy provides educational scholarships to promising Quechua youth, and our partnership with EdJAM will help us expand extracurricular programmes.  These programmes will allow students to remain closely connected to their communities and culture while they study.

Weekly workshops will be delivered to students on a variety of topics: human rights, photography, filmmaking, Quechua language revitalization, are just a few examples. Students will be equipped with the theory, tools, and equipment necessary to engage in creative projects that contribute to their home communities, connect them to their Quechua culture, and educate the public about the long-lasting effects of colonization.

17 students, from Quechua indigenous populations in the Cusco region of Peru, will be the immediate beneficiaries of our programme. However, our intended wider audience also captures the communities of the students participating in the programme.  We hope that as our students learn leadership and advocacy skills, they will be better able to advocate for their communities and ultimately help the communities advocate for themselves.

Our main aims include:

• Strengthening existing human rights workshops for scholarship students, equipping them with the knowledge necessary to defend their rights and those of their communities
• Providing creative outlets for students to explore and challenge inequalities that exist within their societies; and
• Equipping more Indigenous youth leaders with the skills to forge a future for their communities that is economically and culturally resilient.

Our key deliverables will include:

• 10 before and after self-portraits
• 7+ creative projects (required from second-year students, some first-year students may want to join in)
• A series of blog/and or video entries
• Curriculum resources which include a detailed plan of action for educating Indigenous youth about colonial impacts in Latin America
• An academic article about changes in self-perception of Indigenous youth.

Mosqoy will be contracting skilled individuals to deliver workshops on a variety of topics. If we connect with other organizations that share our values and mission, we may choose to create long-term partnerships for future years, but at this time, we are operating independently.

Meet the team: