Cañari Women’s Education Foundation Fundraising Letter 2018

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Dear Friends: I’m so pleased to report we now have twenty-one Cañari women university graduates, with professional degrees ranging from agronomy to veterinary medicine. Two of our alums have finished master’s and two are currently studying, one in Mexico and one in Ecuador. Our current scholars number twelve, and as they graduate we carefully review our pool of applicants and select new recipients. The scholarship is for five years, the usual time for an undergraduate degree in Ecuador.

Since 2005 our program has “lost” only two scholars; each suspended her studies for personal reasons. But we have a policy that they are welcome to return if we have a place. In other words, it’s almost impossible to fail in our program. Once a young woman is accepted as a scholarship holder, we make sure she succeeds by accommodating pregnancy and childbirth, childcare, family crises and other problems – a policy that has paid off with our high success rate.This year we had two graduates, Vicenta Pichisaca in gastronomy and Mercedes Chumaina in accounting as a CPA. I add the photo of Mercedes receiving her diploma in her white hat because, as is usually the case, she was the only indigenous woman in her group (and maybe her class).

Mercedes was special in another way. Through a Christian organization in the U.S., Tom and Kathleen Easterday have sponsored her education since primary school. When I heard about Mercedes through her sister, Margarita, one of our scholars, I wrote to to ask the Easterdays if they would be willing to sponsor Mercedes through university. They were, and they did.

They had hoped to attend her graduation in October, which was not possible, but they sent a generous gift and they are pictured here wearing embroidered shirts from Mercedes in thanks for supporting her education for over 15 years. In the photos below, Mercedes stands with her husband Noe and son on graduation day, and with her proud mother. 

So with two women graduating we welcome two “newbies.” Sara Duy is studying economy at the University of Chimborazo in Riobamba, and Lourdes Pichasaca in medicine at the University of Cuenca. Both have exceptional stories. Several years ago, Sara’s older sister had the rare chance (in Ecuador) for a kidney transplant after years of dialysis. Sara left her secondary studies to accompany her sister in dialysis and recovery from surgery, and they both lost two or three years of high school. Sara finally graduated this year and passed the exam to be admitted to university.

Lourdes Pichasaca showed up with her mother at my studio several years ago. She had taken the entrance exam and passed high enough to get in to university, but not in the field she wanted: medicine. She decided to wait to apply for a scholarship and retake the exam. After that, whenever I ran into her mother in town, she would report that Lourdes was preparing to take the exam yet again. After three tries, she scored a place in the school of medicine at the University of Cuenca, one of the best!

Now for news of some older graduates. Mercedes Guamán was one of our first scholars. She famously became a lawyer and a mother within hours (rushing from the podium with her diploma to the hospital to give birth) and since then has served her Cañari community with legal services and our program as president of the board. Under President Correa she was elected as an alternate to the National Assembly. After six years I think she’s a bit burned out on politics, but one perk was her invitation this year to the United Nations meeting on indigenous peoples in New York. In 2018 Mercedes also received an honorary degree in jurisprudence for her service to the indigenous community.

Carmen Loja went in another direction. After graduating in economy at University of Cuenca, she had a stellar few years in finance, managing a credit union and ending up as comptroller for her hometown of Suscal. Then she left it all to create an organization promoting Andean culture through native agriculture, architecture, food and ancestral medicine. Kinti Wasi invites groups and individuals for stays long and short. (That’s Carmen- our favorite entrepreneur/ innovator – second from left.) Check out her website at: (https://www.facebook.com/kintiwasi.ec/

Juana Chuma is our first to pursue a master’s degree outside the country, in Mexico, where she won a scholarship to UNAM in veterinary medicine. (We subsidize master’s studies at $1500/year for two years, or $3000 total). In the photo at left, Juana is in Puerto Montt, Chile with her research group. She writes that her thesis is focused on a cooperative of cattle producers in the south of Chile.

The Cañari Women’s Education Foundation is an official 501(c)3 nonprofit, which means your contributions are tax deductible. We have zero administrative costs other than this mailing, so every dollar goes to the women’s education. Please make checks to CWEF and send to Charlotte Rubin, 2147 NW Irving St., Portland, OR 97210 (some of you will receive this letter by snail mail with return envelopes), or you can contribute through PayPal with the secure “DONATE” button below.

A final note on this subject: A couple of weeks ago, CWEF treasurer Charlotte Rubin and I visited the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) to talk about the idea of an endowment for our program. OCF has a plan for 501(c) 3 foundations such as ours that looks really good. It’s too soon to launch a campaign, but I would appreciate a note or call from any of you interested in discussing, or helping, with “succession planning.”  I’m a novice!

Heartfelt thanks to all for your ongoing support, and don’t forget that you are invited to visit us in Cañar, any year between January and June. In a couple of months we will welcome two contributors from the Women’s Giving Circle of Bend, Oregon. And earlier this year we had a visit from Portland photographer Rick Rappaport, who took a bunch of beautiful photos during our annual all-scholarship meeting in April.





Celebrating Indigenous Peoples’ Day

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Dear Friends:  Our Cañar world seems very far away these past months in Portland, but I was happily reconnected this week across generations, geography and cultures, and I thought this post would be a good excuse to celebrate Indigenous Peoples’ Day, (October 8). Created as a counter-celebration to Columbus Day in – where else? – Berkeley, in 1992, the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Columbus in the Americas, Indigenous Peoples’ Day has been adopted by many cities and some states as an official holiday (including, I’m happy to say, Portland, Oregon).

Anyway, our story came together around Lucinda Duy, whom I first met years ago as a teenage ñusta, or queen, of Inti Raymi, the summer solstice fiesta. Here she is a few years later, promoting quinoa, one of the traditional Andean crops that many of you know and love by now.  And again, a few years later, married and with two boys, working in primary schools promoting nutritious lunches based on Andean heritage crops. (Thanks to Nicolas Pichisaca for the photos.) …and closer to the present, poised and fully professional, appearing at conferences, giving talks, and selling cookies and cakes and other products in the weekly Friday market, where I often see her, promoted by Mushuk Yuyay, the cooperative of native grains and seeds producers where she works. Lucinda was recently invited to the First Global Conference of Amaranth in Puebla, Mexico, this coming week.

Anxious to go on her first trip outside Ecuador, but neither her family nor her organization had the funds to send her. And here’s where our story brings in the other players. (This is not a fundraising pitch, so please read on….)

(But first, a couple of words about the amazing amaranth, quinoa’s cousin. A leafy plant that blooms extravagantly into long cascades of tiny protein-packed seeds, it contains more than three times the average amount of calcium and is high in iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and potassium. In other words – a powerhouse of an edible seed  (That’s Lucinda in a field of amaranth in the above banner). Our compadre José María grew it several years ago in our back field, with technical advice from Mushuk Yuyay, and while I loved watching and photographing the crop, I found the tiny seeds frustrating to use – tried popping them, and cooking like quinoa, but never got a handle on it. Lucinda and her team, however, teach others how to use the seeds in soups, stews, cereals, cookies and cakes. (The spinach-like leaves are also edible, apparently.)

So back to our story…

Last year, Alana Mockler was a gap-year student in Cañar with Global Citizen Year (great program!), when she lived with Lucinda and José. Alana’s now at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and it was she who contacted me last week to say she was creating a GoFundMe website to help Lucinda get to Mexico. Fight Child Malnutrition in Ecuador https://bit.ly/2C3dOEr

Add into our generational mix Alan Adams, a Peace Corps volunteer in Cañar in the1960’s who, since his retirement as a teacher, has reconnected with the people he knew back then, and helped Mushuk Yuyay write several winning grants. He also helped Alana create the GoFundMe site (which met its goal within the week!), and used his own contacts to make sure Lucinda gets to Mexico. Alan has also been a creative partner of the Cañar archive project in gathering the Peace Corps materials and connecting me with other ex-volunteers. That’s him in his Cañari poncho, a gift from Nicolas Pichisaca of Mushuk Yuyay on a visit to New Jersey a couple of years ago.

Finally, to the mix, we add Juana Chuma, one of our scholarship graduates now studying for her master’s in veterinary medicine in Mexico at UNAM, and Skyler Narostky, another amazing gap-year student, also at UNAM, who helped with fundraising. These two will meet Lucinda as she arrives in Mexico City and make sure she gets to Puebla. Thanks to all these folks, Lucinda Duy will represent Cañar and Mushuk Yuyay in the First Global Conference of Amaranth.

 

 

It’s a small world

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Dear Friends. I miss you!  I miss writing. I usually only send blogs during the months we are in Cañar or traveling, but this year I’m going to try writing from Portland on ideas that relate to our connected worlds – Cañar/Portland, North/South, immigrant/traveler/ home. The light went on a couple of weeks ago when I was walking to meet a friend not far from where I live when I came across these murals on a commercial building.I immediately recognized the graphic style of Guamán Poma de Ayala,16th-century Peruvian artist whose illustrated chronicle depicted the ill-treatment of his people by the Spanish conquistadores. Below is an example of Poma’s illustrations. The foot plow is still used in Peru and back strap loom weaving is still common in both Peru and Ecuador.

I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. A few years ago, this building was such a wreck that one wall detached and fell down the ravine towards Interstate I-84. Even though repaired, it’s been empty for ages. I went back the next day and was lucky to find the artist, Jahmal Landers who filled me in on what’s happening…

Jahmal was hired by Gabriel’s Bakery to create branding and design for their new space and a coffee shop. Previously a teacher in Portland and in Taiwan, Jahmal works now as an independent creative consultant/art director/ designer. He said he’d come up with the designs working with Gabriel’s owner, Almicar Alvarez, who was inside making bread, so I got to meet him too and hear his story. Almicar immigrated from Peru to Portland in 1979, when he fell in love with a traveler from here. He started out at a small french bakery in Portland, then in 1987 launched his own business named for Gabriel, his new-born son. Thirty-one years later, the family business includes a second son, Sandro and is a Portland institution. (http://gabrielsbakery.com/) Promising to come back once the coffee shop is open in a couple of weeks, I walked around the corner to my favorite tea place, Jasmine Pearl Tea Company, and found this young man. When I mentioned I’d left all my good teas behind in Ecuador he said HE was from Ecuador – his father from Otavalo (an indigenous area in the north), his mother from Portland. (http://thejasminepearl.com/)

So there you are! In one day, in a couple of hours – two connections between two worlds. That was a week or so ago, and I got no further with this blog until yesterday, when Michael and I and our friend Joanne met downtown at the Families Belong Together rally. There, a gathering of many worlds – thousands of us – toddlers, kids, parents, oldsters, workers, politicos, Latinos – everyone came together to peacefully protest Trump’s immigration policies. The crowd was so large we couldn’t even see the stage, but I was able to grab a few photos, beginning with Michael with his Guadalupe shirt alongside a young protester, and a woman with her “The Supremes” t-shirt: Ruth, Elena, Sonia and Sandra, the 5 women supreme court justices.

 

That’s it for now dear friends. I’ll try to write another Portland blog in a couple of weeks and maybe we could even convene a PDX virtual book club. I know I’m certainly overwhelmed with books now I’m back in the land of public libraries. Until then, stay in touch!