Help 85+ llama farmers in Peru access fair work

Activities:

2-day intensive trainings for men and women llama farmers to gain necessary skills to provide a sustainable eco-friendly pack service with their llamas to tour operators in their area. 

Progress:

Slowly but steadily tourism activity is recovering. This is allowing llama farmers to start providing services with their llamas again. Thanks to the 7 workshops provided so far, llama farmers have been confident to engage with their llamas in tourism services after the long pause due to the pandemic. The bonds strengthened throughout the workshops are also impacting positively as families are more open to rotating work amongst guild members strengthening their capacity to provide an organized and sustainable tourism service to different tour companies. The increase in tourism activity as we enter high season plus other parallel activities have led us to postpone the workshops for a couple of months, however we can already see the positive impact of the previous workshops:

• The new routes created during the workshops are now available to travelers and have already been booked several times generating direct work opportunities to llama farmers.
• The Llama Pack Community co-created with llama farmers during the workshops is now open to the public and has been booked several times plus it has served as a training center for 30 llama farmers on healthy llama breeding practices and pasture management thanks do different funding sources. View Llama Pack Community Video (Estancia Llama Pack)
• The interaction of llama farmers during the workshops led to agreement amongst guild members to install irrigation systems within their communities to improve pasture quality for their llamas during dry season and the first of three systems has been installed successfully. View irrigation project photos

Workshop Outcomes so far:

• 69 llama farmers from 7 high-Andean communities trained.
• High participation and acceptance of workshop content.
• Reinforcement of Llama Pack Project values and long-term goals.
• Opportunity to discuss different challenges faced by llama farmers under current pandemic circumstances.
• Training in tourism related skills.
• Training in use of llamas for tourism.
• Training in COVID-19 prevention under the tourism guidelines.
• Co-creation of Llama Pack Community.
• Creation of 4 new llama trek routes.
• Addition of new Guild of Llama Breeders of Huilloc community. 

Thank you!

Thanks to all our donors, we continue to work on our long-term goals to improve the livelihood of high-Andean families and protect our fragile mountain ecosystems by promoting the use of llamas as a sustainable, eco-friendly pack alternative. This work allowed the Llama Pack Project to stay connected with our llama farmer partners despite the challenges presented by the global pandemic and now continue to benefit high-Andean families. Llama farmers are looking forward to their turn to participate on the training course! 

We will continue to update our progress on our next report. If you have not yet registered, please make sure to sign up for our newsletter to receive news on the Llama Pack Project here: https://mailchi.mp/c09d3cf9c0e0/llamapackproject