We’re incredibly grateful for our friends at the Inti Raymi Fund, for generously raising and donating $25,000 for Casa Marianella. We spoke with Anas Talalqa, Human Rights Advisor at the Inti Raymi Fund, to find out more about their mission and how they came to find out about Casa.

Please tell us a little about the Inti Raymi Fund and how it was started.

The Inti Raymi Fund was created from the inspiration gained through Chimu’s travels to Peru initially for archeological research purposes in 2008-2011. Upon digging a bit deeper into rural community life in Peru, Chimu discovered a whole world of discrimination against these beautiful Indigenous Peoples. These findings were his inspiration to “do something about these atrocities of cultural and literal genocide of innocent people”. First created in Peru, the Inti Raymi Fund quickly found identical genocidal histories in every country Chimu visited. This revelation led Chimu to expand into a Global Human Rights Foundation, seeking to support at least one Community Project in every country of the world showing what humanly possible to help People. 

How did you first hear about Casa Marianella?

I first became aware of Casa Marianella through a discussion with an Eritrean taxi driver who took me home from the airport one night roughly a year ago.

What inspired you to raise funds to impact Casa Marianella?

After listening to the heartfelt story of my taxi driver’s lifestyle and his incredible struggles to migrate to America, I became compelled to help him, his people and his country of Eritrea.

How can the ATX community get involved with the Inti Raymi Fund?

Without sounding brazen, I embrace the JFK quote.. “ask not what your country can do for you, but what can you do for your country?” Our point is, we’re quite small so we need tons of publicity mainly to help us get our message out of “Stop helplessly reading the news and get out there and Convert the News into Action”. We simply hope to inspire others to get involved and help people directly. This is our main goal, act as a role model to others to help people.

We can see that the Inti Raymi Fund has impacted 66 countries and 77 communities so far – from helping indigenous communities to empowering youth abroad. What are some key accomplishments you have achieved the past few years that you’d like to share?

I honestly believe being alive after many of our very dangerous trips is my greatest accomplishment to date! Second to this, is reflected and presented on the 77 pages we share of stories of the unique peoples and communities we helped. Our intent with each community we help is to allow them Self-Determination, letting each community decide for themselves how best to advance their own unique causes. There are no two identical communities, just like there are no two people exactly alike, so why do so many International NGO’s lump many issues into one pot and prescribe their “Western worn out antidotes over and over again expecting a different result”? The Western Philanthropy model is broken in our opinion and it’s time to re-address the issue with Dignity and Respect for the recipient.

What does the Inti Raymi Fund hope to achieve in 2019?

Our goal for 2019 is to visit and support 10-15 new counties/communities providing Dignity and Respect for those we help.

For more information about the Inti Raymi Fund, visit intiraymifund.org