High in the Peruvian Andes, the Q’ero have carried their language, traditions, and relationship with the mountains across generations. Through centuries of colonization and marginalization, much of their cultural knowledge has endured — not simply as something remembered, but as something still lived.

Q’ero cosmology understands the world as alive and interconnected, with the visible and unseen existing alongside one another. Pachamama, Mother Earth, and the Apus, the sacred mountain beings, remain central to ceremony, healing, agriculture, and everyday life. Knowledge is carried through oral tradition, weaving, music, ritual, and generations of lived experience — knowledge that continues to find expression as the Q’ero navigate life in the world today.

Across Q’ero territory, communities and smaller settlements are scattered throughout an immense mountain landscape, some approaching 4,800 metres in elevation. Freezing nights, thin air, rugged terrain, and long distances shape everyday life, while geographic isolation, alongside longstanding social and economic barriers, continues to limit access to healthcare, education, and essential infrastructure.

Communities We Help

Our work extends to families across Hapu, Yanaruma, Quico, and Cochamarca, among some of the more remote areas of Q’ero territory. Through relationships built over time, we support priorities identified within the communities themselves while honoring what they are working to sustain and carry forward.