This is a guest post from Alan Adams, Asesor Internacional, Mushuk Yuyay
Last spring, we posted a story on Mushuk Yuyay and our efforts to fundraise to support them. We only raised about $100. Please consider a donation. We’re hoping to raise at least $1500 to support a Field Day showing off the Mushuk Yuyay experimental farm and all of the crops available there. If you like to donate to Mushuk via Friends, you can visit Friends of Ecuador’s Donate page and PayPal link.
Mushuk Yuyay in Cañar, Ecuador will host the IX World Quinua Congress on June 17, 18, 19 & 20 of 2025 to coincide with the Inti Raymi celebration. This will be the biggest event in the history of Cañar with universities, NGOs, businesses, government agencies, marketers and tourists participating. Musicians, artists, dancers, performers of every kind will make the festivities bright and exciting. There will be new and traditional foods, including quinua pasta, quinua and amaranth bread, amaranth energy bars, and much more besides the foods that Returned Peace Corps Volunteers remember and love about the Sierra. This will also be a community event featuring the farmers and local crafters, but most of all, you will see the astounding transformation that the people themselves have brought about over the past few decades.
Mushuk Yuyay would like Friends of Ecuador to be an essential part of this World Quinua Congress by helping to sponsor a vital component of the program. Over the years, Friends of Ecuador has helped Mushuk Yuyay while the association was struggling to stay alive. Now Mushuk Yuyay is a growing economic and social force in southern Ecuador. Now, we are hoping that Friends of Ecuador will be put their name on the Field Day at the Mushuk Yuyay experimental farm, Finca La Posta, to demonstrate the advances in agroecological cultivation of quinua and other crops for the health and stability of the region. It is projected that 350 attendees will participate in this activity. The total cost of this event will be $2,100. We are asking Friends of Ecuador to provide just half, $1,500, by the end of 2024, to make the Field Day possible.
I am always available to answer any questions. Please check Mushuk Yuyay out at MushukYuyay.org or Associación Mushuk Yuyay on Facebook.