Bernabe
Bernabe is the President of the Chua Chua Annex of the Q’ero Nation of Peru. The Q’ero Nation is a recognized UNESCO World Heritage site. Like Ruben and Elisa, Bernabe is a grandson of Don Manual Quispe, the Last Inca. Bernabe is an impressive individual with a quiet, gentle strength and intellect that is not readily apparent because of his humble demeanor. He is 33 years young and has expressed that he wants his 6 children to have the opportunity to have more education than the 3rd grade education he was able to have.
The Q’ero community is located at a very high altitude of approximately 14,678 feet above sea level, and the living conditions are harsh and thus, teachers do not stay at the community for long.
In addition to the harsh landscape, the poverty is extreme. Bernabe and his wife, Rosa, share a 2-room adobe home with their 6 children. Bernabe has equipped his adobe home with a Hughes satellite Wi-Fi so that his children can do their schoolwork and have access to the internet.
Bernabe’s leadership and drive to better his community is impressive. The isolation of the Q’ero community limits their economic opportunities. However, despite their isolation, Bernabe has organized an alpaca cooperative for his community, so that they can obtain fair trade value for the alpaca meat and wool they produce; and he is organizing a water cooperative to register and protect the water rights of the main lagoon within their community.
Bernabe embodies collaborative and visionary leadership. He has worked with local experts to build dams sponsored by WEEinc.org to establish ponds that reduced the deaths of the community’s alpacas by 50% during the drought season in Peru.
The dam project providing water to the Q’ero alpaca to prevent their deaths through dehydration is the first infrastructure project WEEinc.org sponsored for the Q’ero community. WEEinc.org has need for donations for other infrastructure projects.
Bernabe’s leadership has allowed the Q’ero people to recognize they possess the knowledge they need for their continued survival. However, it is WEE donors and sponsors that have allowed the Q’ero people’s solutions to become a reality for their needs.
