Living in Peru : your everyday companion

Living in Peru
Jobana Soto

With the help of a Peruvian immigrant living in White Plains, New York, children from Pisco will finally get the chance to attend school in a newly constructed building fit for their educational needs.

Carmen Guevara, 49, is a devoted volunteer at QuipuNet, “a non-profit organization made up of Peruvians and friends of Peru” dedicated in helping advance education in Peru’s poorer regions. Guevara, who heads the organization’s New York chapter, will host a benefit concert on January 31 at the Slater Center in White Plains featuring the Gabriel Alegria Afro-Peruvian Jazz Sextet.

Guevara hopes to raise at least US$2,000, enough to paint a new school building that was built earlier by QuipuNet. That school was also built in the Pisco region where a massive earthquake devastated the area in August 2007.

The performance will consist of Afro-Peruvian jazz with performers playing saxophone, guitar, bass, drums and the traditional “cajon,” specifically used for this type of Peruvian music.

Details of the concert are as follows: 8:00 p.m., January 31 at the Slater Center located at 1 Fisher Court, White Plains. General admission cost is US$20.

QuipuNet has dedicated their services to building schools and libraries in Peru since 1995. For more information on QuipuNet, head on over to their official website.