Meaningful Travel in Patacancha, Peru - Country Walkers
For six years, Country Walkers, our guides, and our guests have supported the small Andean community of Patacancha in Peru. The primary project goal was to construct a dormitory for the children who attend the local elementary school. To date, the project has raised more than $13,000 and continues to grow. The school children of Patacancha are enjoying a two-story, five-room dormitory with facilities for 20 students. Complete with a kitchen and electricity, the dormitory also serves as a Community Center. The project began in 2001, when a Country Walkers tour visited with the people of Patacancha. Our guests were so moved by the spirit of the villagers that they asked the guide, ...
About You
Contact Information
Title
Mrs.
First name
Sonya
Last name
Bradley
Your job title
Tour Manager and Chair, Responsible Tourism Program
Name of your organization
Country Walkers
Organization type
Business
Annual budget/currency
Based on guest count
Mailing address
PO Box 180 Waterbury, VT USA
Telephone number
800 464 9255
Postal/Zip Code
05676
Country
United States
Email address
Alternative email address
Your idea
This will be the address used to plot your entry on the map.
Street Address
PO Box 180
City
Waterbury
State/Province
Vermont
Postal/Zip Code
05676
Country
United States
Geotourism Challenge Addressed by Entrant
Quality of benefit to residents for the destination .
Organization size
Small (1 to 100 employees)
Indicate sector in which you principally work
Tourism-related business
Year innovation began
2001
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Indicate sector in which you principally work
Adventure.
Name Your Project
Meaningful Travel in Patacancha, Peru - Country Walkers
Describe Your Idea
For six years, Country Walkers, our guides, and our guests have supported the small Andean community of Patacancha in Peru. The primary project goal was to construct a dormitory for the children who attend the local elementary school. To date, the project has raised more than $13,000 and continues to grow. The school children of Patacancha are enjoying a two-story, five-room dormitory with facilities for 20 students. Complete with a kitchen and electricity, the dormitory also serves as a Community Center. The project began in 2001, when a Country Walkers tour visited with the people of Patacancha. Our guests were so moved by the spirit of the villagers that they asked the guide, ...
Innovation
What is the goal of your innovation? Please describe in one sentence the kind of impact, change, or reform your approach is intended to achieve.
The goal of our innovation – the construction of a dormitory for school children in Peru – is to improve the lives of children in Patacancha by making it easier for them to attend and succeed in school.
Please write an overview of your project. Include how your approach supports or embodies geotourism or destination stewardship. This text will appear when people scroll over the icon for your entry on the map located on the competition homepage.
For six years, Country Walkers, our guides, and our guests have supported the small Andean community of Patacancha in Peru. The primary project goal was to construct a dormitory for the children who attend the local elementary school. To date, the project has raised more than $13,000 and continues to grow. The school children of Patacancha are enjoying a two-story, five-room dormitory with facilities for 20 students. Complete with a kitchen and electricity, the dormitory also serves as a Community Center. The project began in 2001, when a Country Walkers tour visited with the people of Patacancha. Our guests were so moved by the spirit of the villagers that they asked the guide, “What are the needs of this village?” Our guide, a Peruvian native, discussed our guests’ inquiry with the Patacancha school principal, who suggested that a dormitory would be a tremendous help to local children throughout the Urubamba Valley. The school draws students from five surrounding communities and with no public transportation and a challenging trek by foot amidst chilly temperatures from autumn through spring, low class attendance and retention rates were the norm.
Country Walkers guests continue to visit Patacancha on our Peru tour, and along with Country Walkers’ supporting donations, guests continue to bring supplies for the children. One guest even brought handmade quilts! This project is monitored and overseen by our local guide, and proudly featured on TravelersPhilanthropy.com
Explain in detail why your approach is innovative
The Patacancha Dormitory project is innovative because it was driven solely by the needs of the local community and the passion of our guests. Our guide addressed the question from our guests, “what does this village need?” and posed it to the local community, who responded by expressing their desire to make it easier for their children to go to school. This scenario is a prime example of how Country Walkers’ guides are committed to fulfilling the company’s commitment to responsible tourism. Our Peruvian guide, Juan CarlosYà?ez, has been the point person for this project. He has coordinated all Peru/Patacancha efforts including managing the checking account for the funds, acquiring materials from local sources, and organizing the work crew.
Impact
Describe the degree of success you have had to date. How do you measure, both quantitatively and qualitatively, the impact on sustainability or enhancement of local culture, environment, heritage, or aesthetics? How has it transformed or contributed to the power of place or demonstrated the sustainability of tourism? How does your approach minimize negative impacts?
Since we implemented the Patacancha dorm project in 2001, Country Walkers continues to monitor the success of this project by making sure it is meeting the needs of the local villagers as intended. The dormitory is fully functional and integrated into the community. Currently, the Ministry of Health of Peru uses the dormitory space during their periodic visits with the community whereas previously, communal space was not available for such visits.
The dormitory project is sustainable as we continue to develop it with ongoing guest visits and contributions. The dorm was built using locally-sourced products and with great respect and adherence to local styles and customs for building such structures. Volunteers built adobe blocks by hand, and the clay oven in the kitchen was built by students.
In what ways are local residents actively involved in your work, including participation and community input? How has the community responded to or benefited from your approach?
The dormitory project would not have been possible without the support and input from the local community. This is truly their project. The community was 100% involved in everything from the vision for the dorm to the construction of the building. In addition, the community is involved in all discussions regarding the use of funds and setting of all future goals.
Following completion of the dorm, the students at the school drew pictures of their community and sent them to Country Walkers as a thank you for this ongoing initiative. We proudly used one of these images as the design of our holiday greeting card (sent to all past Country Walkers guests) with a special message describing our giving back mission and highlighting this project. These cards were sent to the kids at the school, so they could further understand the impact of their gift, our enthusiasm for their work, and our commitment to sharing the information with Country Walkers travelers.
How does your program promote traveler enthusiasm, satisfaction, and engagement with the locale?
We encourage guests to be committed to traveling responsibly and respect local cultures and we promote this throughout the trip experience, from the initial confirmation packet with an overview of the Patacancha community and our experience (including the project), to the enthusiasm and commitment to this initiative shown on tours by our local guides.
Sonya Bradley has been invited to speak about the Patacancha project – thus promoting the initiative, and detailing gains and learnings of the projects – at organizations such as Traveler’s Philanthropy conference in Arusha, Tanzania in November 2008.
Describe how your work helps travelers and local residents better understand the value of the area's cultural and natural heritage, and educates them on local environmental issues.
Our local guides are amazing – they are naturalists, historians and ambassadors of their countries. They facilitate a guest’s immersion into the culture, heritage, and environment of the locale. To supplement the knowledge they share, our guests are provided with pre-departure materials and suggested reading lists to begin this education at the time of booking.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Sustainability
How is your initiative currently financed? If available, provide information on your finances and organization that could help others. Please list: Annual budget, annual revenue generated, size of part-time, full-time and volunteer staff.
Since 2001, $13,000 has been raised toward this project. This sum has funded the construction of a five-room building complete with a basic kitchen. The dormitory is quite modern by local standards, and doubles as a community and health center. It has electricity and space enough for 20 students during the week. All labor and management of the project is on a strictly volunteer basis.
Is your initiative financially and organizationally sustainable? If not, what is required to make it so? Is there a potential demand for your innovation?
Country Walkers has joined with Traveler’s Philanthropy www.travelersphilanthropy.org, a non-profit organization which provides a system of checks and balances to ensure the longevity of this project. We have proudly worked with Traveler’s Philanthropy to provide a portal for tax deductible guest donations to assure that the funds reach this project.
What are the main barriers you encounter in managing, implementing, or replicating your innovation? What barriers keep your program from having greater impact?
We hope through Traveler’s Philanthropy that we will gain visibility for a wider audience, as this project is currently only funded by Country Walkers and Country Walkers guests on tours that run times a year.
It was also a challenge to implement a local bank account in Peru but we accomplished this with 3 signers on the account (Juan Carlos, the school principal, and a local community member) and also by working with Traveler’s Philanthropy as a reputable, bonded conduit.
Another challenge was addressing the cultural practice of families who encourage their children to stay home and help farm. Our goal is to build farms for guinea pigs, trout and chicken to not only feed the children during the school week, but to also teach them small business skills, enabling them to earn an income.
What is your plan to expand or further develop your approach? Please indicate where/how you would like to grow or enhance your innovation, or have others do so.
As we continue to support the estimated 120 students of Patacancha, our projects have grown to include and will include:
- Increasing the number of computers for students – the school currently has 14
-Stocking the new trout farm
-Outfitting classrooms with desks and chairs
-Starting a lunch donation program for the entire school year
-Starting a sustainable guinea pig and chick farm, providing meals and valuable farming skills
-Building additional toilet facilities and repairing existing ones
The Story
Please provide a personal bio. Note this may be used in Changemakers' marketing material.
Peru Guide: Guiding runs in the family for Juan Carlos Yàñez, who is a certified professional tour guide of Cusco and has been leading tours in the Andes for many years. Trained in his mother city of Cusco, Juan Carlos enjoys sharing his vast knowledge and love for his ancestral culture; evident from his enthusiastic smile and warm sense of humor. When not guiding, Juan Carlos spends time researching the Peruvian Andes with his father, also a well-known tour guide.
Country Walkers Tour Manager: Sonya Bradley, Tour Manager, and Chair of Country Walkers’ Responsible Tourism Program. Sonya Bradley develops and manages walking tours in Latin America, Africa, and Canada for Country Walkers, an international tour operator. As chair of the company’s Responsible Tourism Program, Sonya guides the company’s initiatives for sustainable business and travel practices on and off the trail. Her passion for worldwide travel and cultures emerged from her early years living in Africa.
What is the origin of your innovation? Tell the Changemakers and media communities what prompted you to start this initiative.
Country Walkers was inspired to implement the dormitory project when our Peruvian guide, Juan Carlos, told us about his experience with our tour guests wanting to do something to help the community of Patacancha. After hearing Juan Carlos’ proposal, we coordinated guest contributions with the project goals and designated yearly fiscal benchmarks to help continue to fund the project and achieve its goals.
This project was initiated by our local guides, our guests, the local community, and the Country Walkers ‘home team.’ Financial support and funding for this project came from Country Walkers’ guests – particularly those participating in our Peru tour – and Country Walkers itself. The original goal for this project was to raise $4,500; this amount was the cost estimate for building a two-room dormitory to house 12 students, in addition to a sustainable trout farm.
Describe some unique tourist experiences that your approach provides. Be specific; give illustrative examples.
Guests of our Peru tour are welcomed with open arms into the community of Patacancha, providing them with truly authentic experiences. Our guests are invited into the school classrooms to learn about the educational goals and opportunities for local children, and are invited into community homes for tea and bread. Everyone throughout the community spends time with our guests during their half-day visit. It’s a one-of-a-kind experience for our guests they will likely never forget!
What types of partnerships or professional development would be most beneficial in spreading your innovation?
Traveler’s Philanthropy has proved to be a worthy partner for us, as they provide an avenue for guest contributions, in addition to providing guidance in understanding and accountability for a non-profit initiative.
Our one-year relationship with the Traveler’s Philanthropy has helped us increase the contributions given to Country Walkers for use towards community service projects such as the Patacancha dorm project. We are currently researching other partnership opportunities with Peruvian organizations to use the Patacancha dorm project as a model for similar initiatives in other parts of the country.
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 | 209 weeks ago Sonya Bradley submitted this idea. |
