Fundacion Comunidad's photostream

Comunidad is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization formed in 2002 by ArtAndes and friends. We work with native people in the Peruvian highlands, whose lives and communities were decimated by the Shining Path terrorist group in the 1980s and 90s. 70,000 innocent people died or “disappeared” at the hands of either the Shining Path or the army that was supposed to protect them.

One such community is the village of Paccha, in the mountains near Ayacucho, where Comunidad is currently focusing our efforts. With much of the little village brutally murdered in 1989, the area has been slow to recover, with only widows and orphans, and a government eager to forget this painful chapter in its country’s history. But Paccha is also the home town of Wilbur Quispe, master weaver for ArtAndes, who has not forgotten. Please read “A Durable Weave” (PDF), to learn more about Wilbur and to gain a better understanding of why Comunidad was created.

In Paccha, Comunidad has started a secondary school, along with scholarship and nutrition programs, to give the people the opportunities and tools they need to get themselves and their community back on their feet. Through careful allocation of our resources, which come solely in the form of private donations, we are creating a self-sustaining bridge for the people back to the life they once had.