The 2015 Sargent Shriver Humanitarian Award for Humanitarian Service winner, Ralph Bolton (right), and the mayor of the Chijnaya village community.
The Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service is awarded by the National Peace Corps Association to Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who continue to make a sustained and distinguished contribution to humanitarian causes at home or abroad, or are innovative social entrepreneurs whose actions will bring about significant long-term change. The NPCA will present the Shriver Award at Peace Corps Connect in Berkeley, California on June 6.
A Story that Begins and Ends in Peru
The 2015 Shriver Award Winner teaching during his Peace Corps service in Peru.sustainable rural communities. Projects originate directly from the people who will benefit from them and are carried out in collaboration with the Foundation-created Peruvian counterpart organization, the Asociación Pro-DIA.
The 2015 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service goes to Ralph Bolton in recognition of his creation and operation of The Chijnaya Foundation, a nonprofit that addresses the needs of poor communities on the Altiplano (highland) region of Southern Peru. Ralph’s deep understanding of Andean culture, from his time in the Peace Corps, his anthropological research and his hands-on involvement with Quechua-speaking communities, influences the underlying philosophy of the Foundation. The Foundation uses an integrated, bottoms-up approach to the development of sustainable rural communities. Projects originate directly from the people who will benefit from them and are carried out in collaboration with the Foundation-created Peruvian counterpart organization, the Asociación Pro-DIA.
However, this story really begins in 1962, when Ralph first came to Peru, among the first Peace Corps Volunteers to serve in that South American
country. His first year in the Peace Corps was spent organizing rural consumer cooperatives and teaching literacy skills to speakers of Quechua, a Native American language spoken throughout the Andean region. In 1963, a major flood on the shores of Lake Titicaca devastated several communities where Ralph was working. The Peruvian government assigned Ralph to assist in relocating families who had lost their homes, land and animals. For two years, he served as Field Director of a project that created a new community on higher land, named Chijnaya, that was organized as a production cooperative. Chijnaya is recognized today as one of the most progressive indigenous communities on the Peruvian Altiplano.
Hard Work Continues in the U.S.
Upon returning to the U.S., Ralph earned his doctorate in anthropology from Cornell University and went on to a 40-year teaching career as a professor at Pomona College in California. His work as an anthropologist focused on Andean cultures, taking Ralph back to Peru often to conduct his field research. However, during the 1980’s and 90’s, civil unrest in Peru made travel dangerous, so Ralph shifted his focus to ways in which the anthropology
Bolton (right) at a celebration in Chijnaya.
profession should respond to the emergent AIDS epidemic. For his efforts in AIDS research and activism, the Society for Medical Anthropology and the AIDS and Anthropology Group gave him its Distinguished Service Award. In 2010, the American Anthropological Association honored Ralph with its highest award, the Franz Boas Award for Distinguished Service to Anthropology.
Fortuitously, in 2004, members of the Chijnaya village invited him back to honor his role in founding the community. An all-day fiesta thrown for the occasion was attended by hundreds of villagers, many of whom remembered him fondly. During this visit and at their request, he was inspired to once again assist Altiplano communities. Within nine months, The Chijnaya Foundation was created and operationalized.
Keeping Innovation at the Forefront of the Foundation
Bolton consulting with a campesino in an Altiplano community.
The Chijnaya Foundation currently partners with fifteen Altiplano communities, who work as a cohesive network and whose leaders meet regularly to discuss the implementation of projects in their home communities. This collaborative approach emphasizes the importance of an integrated system that engages in education, agriculture, health and artisanry. Ralph’s conception of community growth and sustainability is rooted in the principle that communities are best served by helping them realize their own goals. By realizing their own goals, communities can achieve independence while still remaining true to their culture.
The innovative work of the Foundation is exemplified by its twist on microfinance programs, loaning funds to members from twelve communities for health- and income-enhancing projects. In addition to multiple loans made to install smoke-free stoves for family homes, more than 1100 loans have been given for construction projects that increase agricultural productivity, especially with respect to milk production. The innovation is that borrowers repay the very low interest rate loans (at an exceptionally high level of compliance) to the community fund which is then repurposed into more loans made to their neighbors. At the end, the balance reverts to the community, to be used for a communal goal. One outcome of the loan program has been the Chijnaya community’s purchase of $100,000 worth of new agricultural equipment.
Working at the Grassroots Level
By addressing expressed needs from the grassroots, The Chijnaya Foundation is involved in a broad range of activities. For example, keeping true to its Peace Corps roots, the Foundation restarted a highly successful artisan program that was originally introduced by another Peace Corps volunteer in the 1960’s. For several years, embroideries of over 100 Altiplano artisans were sold at the Santa Fe International Folk Art Market, boosting artisans’ income significantly. The Foundation also works with groups of ceramicists in the town of José Domingo Choquehuanca to improve their working conditions and technology. Additionally, four alpaca herding communities are collaborating with the Foundation and its partners on improving the genetic stock, wool quality, herding practices and marketing of alpaca fleece.
Ralph has successfully combined his deep understanding of Andean culture and his search for innovative solutions to combat poverty to become an innovative social entrepreneur. Evidence of his compassion extends from his early work as a Peace Corps Volunteer to the many community-based projects that The Chijnaya Foundation oversees today. He is, nonetheless, insistent on giving credit for the Foundation’s accomplishments to a remarkable team of dedicated RPCVs and other friends and donors, including Amigos de Bolivia y Perú who nominated him for this award, supporting efforts to impact some of the poorest communities of Peru, while respecting their culture.
Women from the community work on tapestries to sell.
Thank you to Gloria Levin for contributing to this blog post.