Barbara Land, Executive Director and Board President of the Nevada Building Hope Foundation has been working in Iquitos, Peru and in the Peruvian Rainforest since 2007. She has worked with several NGO’s in both the USA and Peru in providing educational programs, humanitarian aid and relief to this remote part of the world. Due to her efforts, the first secondary school was built in a remote river village along the Tahuayo River. Working in collaboration with the Universidad Nacional de la Amazona Peruana, in 2017 Barbara will complete a full ethnographic study of the area. This text will be written in four languages and all the proceeds from this book will fund both the international and national Nevada Building Hope Foundation projects. After being recognized by the Ministerio de Cultura, Peru and the City of Iquitos for her research and her humanitarian projects since 2007, in 2016 Barbara Land formed the Nevada Building Hope Foundation (Peru) and the Nevada Building Hope Foundation (USA). Founding Board Members of NBHF include: Erinn Pignetti, Kasey Ray Dunn, Dr. Carrie Cameron, Doug Simpson, Kristie Tate, Steve Meyer and Jhonatan Rodriquez.

Our target areas for the Nevada Building Hope Peruvian projects will be two-fold and of equal importance. First and foremost, our goal is to improve the lives of the people living in remote river villages along the Amazon River/and or its tributaries by providing educational support and other learning opportunities. Secondly, we will help struggling dance artists in the jungle city of Iquitos, Peru through numerous dance education workshops and projects.

Iquitos, Peru, is known as the “Capital of the Peruvian Amazon,” it is located in the Great Plains of the Amazon Basin, and is surrounded by the Amazon, Nanay, and Itaya Rivers. It is the largest city in the world that cannot be reached by road – only accessible by river and air. This isolated city is cut off from the world and its inhabitants are trying to catch up with the modern world and the 21st century.

Ayacucho Village, is a remote river village and is located on the Yanayacu River, in the Peruvian Rainforest. This remote village is approximately eight hours by speed boat from Iquitos City. Due to the severe poverty of the people living there, they have very little if any access to the city and the modern world. There are 185 people living in Ayacucho Village, including a Kindergarten with 15 students and a Primary school with 35 children. There is not a secondary school in the village or in near-by communities, thus making a secondary education for the children of Ayacucho and the three other river communities unattainable. We believe that the only way to truly serve the people living in the Amazon Basin is to educate them.

The theme for the Ayacucho Children’s Project is “The Future is in our hands.” With the every changing environment of the 21st century, the children living in the Amazon must be educated to live and cope with this new environment. The future of the Amazon and all its resources is the responsibility and rests in the hands of the children residing there.

The Nevada Building Hope Foundation is proud to partner with the Curassow Amazon Lodge, this lodge is a highly respected eco tour company and is committed to help the local people of Ayacucho Village by supporting numerous social and educational programs.