Our programs
Cultural Learning and Meaningful Service Projects
Two Ways Student Groups Can Engage
Cultural Learning Programs
Students spend time with Andean artisans and Awamaki staff through hands-on activities, conversation, and guided discussion. Programs may include traditional weaving demonstrations, participation in a weaving activity, and discussion around sustainability, community-based tourism, and women-led entrepreneurship in the Sacred Valley.
This option works well for groups with limited time who want a structured educational experience that goes deeper than observation.
Meaningful Service Learning Projects
Awamaki also works with student and youth groups looking for meaningful service projects in Peru. Service learning opportunities are developed around current community and organizational needs, not created simply to give visitors something to do.
Depending on timing, group size, and partner priorities, students may contribute to projects connected to artisan cooperatives, education, sustainable tourism, community spaces, or organizational support. The goal is for service work to be useful, respectful, and connected to ongoing local efforts.
What Students May Do
What Students Learn
Through the program, students gain a deeper understanding of how traditional Andean weaving connects to cultural identity, women-led entrepreneurship, sustainability, and daily life in the Sacred Valley.
They also explore how tourism and service work can either remain surface-level or become more meaningful when shaped by long-term relationships with local partners. Rather than treating culture or service as a short activity, Awamaki’s programs help students understand the people, systems, and choices behind responsible community engagement.
Students leave with a clearer understanding of how culture, identity, local economies, and global markets intersect in the Andes.
What Makes the Service Work Meaningful
Awamaki’s service learning projects are not designed as one-off volunteer activities. They are shaped by ongoing relationships with artisan cooperatives, local educators, community partners, and Awamaki staff.
That means projects are planned around real needs, appropriate timing, and the capacity of the communities and programs involved. Students are not placed into communities as outsiders “helping” for a short visit. Instead, they participate in structured service learning that includes context, reflection, and respect for work already being led locally.
This is what makes the experience different: students contribute while also learning why meaningful service requires humility, preparation, and partnership.
Why Awamaki
Awamaki offers student group programs rooted in long-term relationships, not staged experiences or short-term service projects.
Students engage with Andean artisans, local educators, and Awamaki staff through programs designed around participation, conversation, and context. The experience is structured enough for educational travel schedules while remaining grounded in real partnerships and ongoing community priorities.
Awamaki’s model connects traditional weaving, sustainable tourism, education, and women-led entrepreneurship. For student groups, this creates a practical way to learn from local partners while participating in work that remains connected to daily life in the Sacred Valley.
Your Group’s Visit Creates Real Impact
Student group programs support Awamaki’s long-term partnerships with more than 180 women artisans across 9 cooperatives in the Sacred Valley.
Depending on the program, your group’s visit may contribute to fair compensation for artisans and educators, support training and educational initiatives, strengthen women-led income opportunities, and help sustain traditional weaving practices through continued community participation.
The goal is not to separate service from daily life, but to support work already connected to local knowledge, community priorities, and long-term opportunity.