Jesuit Projects: Internado Malqo Wasi

I've been thinking about how many different projects the Jesuits have in the Quispicanchi province. I've interacted with many of the projects, but there's a lot I don't know. So in an effort to educate myself and to highlight the work that Jesuits and their collaborators (like JVs!) are doing, I'm going to do an intermittent series on Jesuit Projects.

 A key Jesuit project in Ocongate is the internado.  It goes by the name “Malqo Wasi” which is Quechua for “House of the Youth.”

The internado is a home that houses and feed boys from rural communities during the week. These are the students that live too far away to travel each day. They go home only on the weekends, so their experience of the public school in Ocongate is a bit of a boarding school experience. There's one man in charge of the 40 or so boys who stay there. He's responsible for getting them up each morning and getting them to bed each night. Their meals are all provided in the parish comedor (dining hall). Most of the boys Rachel I taught during February live at Malqo Wasi during the school year.

I know at this point some readers are wondering “What about the girls?”

I asked the same question, and here's what I've found out. The parish used to run a similar dormitory for girls, but there aren't people to run it anymore. A great injustice in the Andes (and across the world) is the devaluing of girls' education. Many parents aren't very interested in their daughters being educated. 20 years ago, when the FyA 44 project started, no girls were sent to learn. There are girls going to the FyA schools now, which means things are changing, but there are still more boys sent to school than girls, which means there's change yet to happen.

Delia, the girl we gave a ride to the day we went to the hot springs LINK, is an example of a girl from a rural community who does come to Ocongate to study. Girls like her tend to stay with families in Ocongate.

Without the internado, most of these boys wouldn't be able to go to school in Ocongate. The need for a girls' internado seems obvious, and it's something the Jesuits should prioritize. Pd. Antonio has expressed his desire for a girls' internado, but has had difficulty finding people both capable and trustworthy enough to run it.

The lack of a girls' internado is undoubtably a weakness, but the Jesuits are doing more than any other institution in Cusco to ensure the education children living in rural poverty in Cusco.