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Civic duty: Impulso País

After two years of unsettling political turmoil and a significant Congress opposition, Peru saw its 2016 elected President, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, resign in early 2018 due to his involvement in the famous Lava Jato corruption case. These were uncertain democratic times, but unafraid of a challenge, young Peruvian Diana Vasquez, joined by a group of friends, embraced the chaos and created Impulso País, a non-profit social organization committed to strengthen democracy in Peru.

To worsen the turmoil, for years there has been a silent need of strengthened democracy in the South American nation, a need that has evolved into a cyclical problem, allowing Peruvians to sink into misinformation and indifference on their own reality. This unheard necessity has been expanding around the country, but it motivated Diana to attempt to break this vicious cycle, deciding to offer good quality information for everyone and create innovative and helpful projects to help her country. As a Peruvian woman myself, I feel it is my privilege to continue empowering women, specially in this month, and who better to bring up to the scene than the President and Co-founder of Impulso País, Diana, to tell us about the work she has been in charge of for the past two years.

Impulso País is based on a three-pillar work: (i) they inform Peruvian citizens in an accessible way, (ii) they propose evidence-based solutions to relevant social matters that contribute to reduce inequalities, and (iii) they generate alliances between public, private and social sectors. Impulso País believes democracy is not only about citizen participation, but also equal opportunities for all, to which their work is truly broad and focused on Peruvians’ needs. Beginning with only 12 volunteers back in 2018, this group was committed to create a rounded and well-established national organization to aid their nation. Now, after almost 3 years, they have grown exponentially and manage more than 70 interdisciplinary volunteers, as well as they launched their name in the Peruvian volunteering ecosystem with innovative projects.

Two of Impulso País flagship projects are the rural community work in the Peruvian highlands of Pampamarca and their Electoral Observatories. In the first one, the Pampamarca project aims to help rural residents out of poverty through the value of their traditions in the production of textiles. This is one of the proudest organizational achievements Diana has had under her wing.

 

“We started this project by aiding another organization, Afrázame. They used to apply different activities and tools that were not ideal to help the community in the medium nor the long term. Our work consists in building a diagnosis based on the resident’s productive needs and then a medium-term poverty graduation program for the community. It has components regarding materials, infrastructure and capacitation around their main economic activities, as well as financial inclusion and close monitoring activities with the help of active government entities”, Diana explains.
Through the training of textile craftsmen, the next step is to complete the diagnosis and equip the community in order to build a high-quality brand they can push into bigger markets. We have also trained the community leaders in financial topics, so they can pass on the information and become sustainable over time.” As Impulso País’ goal is to bring up democracy through the generation of equal opportunities, this type of projects has that exact potential to directly impact people’s lives, and this one, set to continue in 2021, has a promising forecast for all the families involved.

 

On the second project, the Electoral Observatories, are set to inform the voting population. Impulso País already tested it three times, in 2018, for both the Municipal Elections for Lima and the Referendum for political reform, and in 2020, for the Extraordinary Congressional Elections.

In these projects we have shown Peruvians the importance of voting right, as in voting for a real representation and not for superfluous motives. We have looked up and graded the proposals of the candidates, their profiles, background, etc. Along these 3 encounters, we have reached thousands of people, mainly through our social media, and mostly around the ages of 18 to 35 years old.”

Diana recalls a candid story back in 2018, where Impulso País was doing a simple intervention, playing a game of “match your candidate to the party symbol”, in the middle of a busy crossroad in the centre of the Peruvian capital. Limeños (residents of Lima) were set to choose a new mayor for their city by voting for the party logo, not for a candidate per se. The idea was clear: help people relate the face of the candidate to the logo of their party.

I will never forget that about a dozen people, out of the 100 who were personally intervened, were thanking us for teaching them which party they had to mark in the voting card. Lots of them thought their candidates were running with different parties, because they had recently switched and they did not notice, or because their parties had similar logos to others and simply got confused. This moment is where it hit me, perhaps it’s not much, but it was one of our first contributions to an informed vote”, Diana remembers.

Daily motivated by her eager to learn team and an exciting 2021 ahead, with April’s General Elections and the Bicentennial of Peru’s Independence in July, Diana feels grateful of the learnings Impulso País has allowed her. Being constantly exposed to information has made her more empathetic and aware of the Peruvian reality, as well as having the opportunity to meet excellent professionals. Peru has a social and political juncture that changes constantly, but the impact Impulso País causes by informing every single person in a neutral way, giving the information that matters, and the tools for a quality analysis is motivation enough to continue their work.

“We do not try to persuade others to take our position, on the contrary, we try to give them the tools to analyse the situation around them, take their own positions and make their own decisions”.

Mariela Chacaltana Bonifaz
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