Irene Ccana Maqque's story:

Irene is an ambitious and motivated young woman, who has overcome adversity with strength. Her father, Wenceslau, was a strong leader of her community of Amaru, and one of the most successful weavers of their cooperative, helping to build self-sustainable socioeconomic development initiatives for all families in his community.

When Irene was 14 years old, he was diagnosed with cancer in his leg. Due to the health system in Peru, hospital visits are very expensive and their family did not have health insurance. After seven months, Irene and her family successfully petitioned the Municipality of Pisac to financially support them to take her father to the hospital, where his left leg was amputated. Since then, Wenceslau was unable to find paid work, and in 2011, he passed away at 44 years old, because the cancer had spread throughout his body.

Irene tries to support her other three siblings with the little money she has, since there is no one else available to work in her family. Mosqoy is her only option to continue studying.

She would like to study medicine. “In my community, a very small percentage of people have interest in their health, due to lack of economy,” says Irene. “As a result, there are many children and youth who suffer from malnutrition and do not have the knowledge, ability, or resources to better their health. Often, they end up as orphans. The average life expectancy in my community is approximately 1 to 50 years, and there is no future when one marries very young and have children.” Irene has also expressed interest in entering politics later in her career, to form a part of the municipal cabinet, to help fight for the wellbeing of her fellow citizens.

She has always been one of the top three students in her class, and in high school, was awarded best student. She also won a diploma for “Best Math Student of the Year.”