Coti Art Craft Center

This is our first initiative in the Village of Rumira. The purpose of the center is to train villagers in the fine arts of Andean textiles, ceramics, woodcrafts and musical instrument construction. The Center will also teach the artisans marketing, packaging techniques, international trends and quality control. Once production has achieved an excellent quality, Children of the Andes will get involved in developing marketing strategies to help them export their crafts overseas.

The Village of Rumira donated the land where the center is being built. Blueprints were approved for this beautiful 5,600 sq. ft. building and construction started November 2005. Please visit our NEWS & PRESS tab to check our progress. The cost of building the Coti Art Craft center has been estimated at $26,000.00 dollars. Friends Carla Monge and Dan Willis passionately enrolled in fundraising through family and friends and managed to raise the money to start the project. Once the building is complete we will begin hiring fine artisans, who will be in charge of training the local community of Rumira and Ollantaytambo. Most villages in the Andes don’t have any sources of income. Their financial transactions are done through trade or by exchanging a crop for a crop, or a textile for produce. By creating new sources of income through art crafts this community will be able to elevate their socio economical status, and as a result provide a better future for their children. The Center will also have a Library for the community.

Kuychirumiyoc: Rumira’s Village Waldorf Inspired School

“The stone where the rainbow starts” is a Waldorf inspired School that will be using the Waldorf method but adapted to the Andean reality. It will include Andean myth, their stories, dances and folklore, their Andean cosmology, and will center around beautiful Pachamama and the Apus, Mother Earth and the sacred mountains of the Andes.

Kuychirumiyoc will be a school were the children will blossom in sacred space, where a child’s smile will carry the seven colors of the rainbow, and in their eyes the glow and wisdom of the sacred Apus. A place where the ancient knowledge of the elders will be taught with grace and beauty. A place where the seeds of the new Paqos and Mamaconas will be planted, so that in a later time they can become, should they desire the new caretakers of the ancient teachings. The children will learn as they play and interact with nature. Art, music, dance and movement, art crafts, spirituality, self respect and love for thy self and others as well as a strong academic education: reading, math, physics, science, poetry, languages, etc. Education nurtured by magic, beauty and gratitude. The Coti Center of Rumira will provide a temporary space for the creation of this beautiful school. Kuychirumiyoc will begin with Nursery and Kindergarten. We are honored to welcome on board our first Waldorf trained teacher Lucia Justo.

We have spotted several locations and are negotiating bringing the cost of purchasing the land from the locals to a reasonable price. We are looking approximately 2.3 acres of land to house the school .The design of the building will be based on the Inca’s square cross, the Chacana. We have estimated the construction of the building plus land fees to be around $90,000.00 dollars.

We are expecting 30 children during the first year and another 30 in the second year. By 2009 we will move into our new facility with the 1st grade and continue with the following grades and the hiring of new teachers as time progresses.

Taray’s Waldorf Teachers Training Center

The focus of this program will be to educate teachers living in the Peruvian Andes. Specifically, we will provide training for school teachers in order to equip them with the necessary tools based on the Waldorf education system to teach the children of the Andes. Waldorf education is a unique form of education from preschool through high school, which is based on the view that the human being is a being of body, mind, and spirit. The specific methods used in Waldorf schools come from the view that the child develops through a number of basic stages from childhood to adulthood. The Waldorf curriculum is specifically designed to work with the child through these stages of development. Loudes Jibaja, will be in charge of training local quechua and spanish speaking teachers. Lourdes has more than 20 years as an educator and certified trainer with Waldorf education. Classes will commence in February 2006 for a month and will continue for 3 years of training in order to get a certificate. Training for the teachers will be free however your donations will assist in sustaining this crucial project.

Estrella del Sur: Pisac’s Village Waldorf Inspired School

“Southern Star” is Lourdes Jibaja’s Waldorf inspired School initiative in the City of Pisac. Lourdes has done an incredible work transforming a small public school into a beautiful environment where Taray’s  and Pisac’s children are blossoming.

In the summer of 2005 Lourdes brought this new education to Taray-Pisac and started reading beautiful stories to the children. After 2 months of Lourdes working with the children the parents started noticing changes in them. They were so excited about their teacher and the Waldorf education that decided to build Lourdes a home. Lourdes has been working with the children for almost two and a half years. She has been working hard because she believes that this education in what the children of the Andes need. An education that can teach the children to believe in themselves and help them with their self esteem. We at Children of the Andes are totally committed to our teachers in Peru and believe that Lourdes Jibaja is at the center of the Waldorf initiative for the Andes region.