Meet my World – a film by Peruvian youth, in their own words.

From the filmmakers:

Amantani is an Anglo Peruvian NGO, which works to help children from marginalised Quechua families to access education, stimulating social development for Peru’s most disadvantaged communities. Together with our friends at Andina restaurant in London, we have created Meet My World; a participatory film campaign developed by indigenous children from the Andes of Peru.

Perception of life in developing countries is distorted by not-for-profit organisations that fail to mention the positive aspects of life in the communities they support. This approach reinforces racial stereotypes, and comes at a cost to developing communities that isn’t being accounted for. We want to address this historical imbalance, moving away from pity and assumptions of cultural superiority, towards reciprocal connections based on respect and common understanding.

Our Meet My World project allows young people to define how they are portrayed. We simply help them to write and present their own films in which they can teach people all over the world the traditional skills and knowledge from their communities.

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RELATED LESSONS ON OPEN ENDED SOCIAL STUDIES INCLUDE:

Potosi and the Globalization of an Empire (Free online text suited for middle or high school classroom use, guided reading questions, and suggested activities):  Globalization is nothing new – the indigenous peoples slaving away in the Potosi mines 500 years ago could tell you all about it, while Europeans cracked the whip in order to buy Asian-made goods at affordable prices. Add in the fact that the mines were supplied with food and coca by African slaves laboring away in the low lands, and you have a template for the modern integrated global economy – exploitation, unequal rewards, and all.

A Guided Tour of Peru is a curated photo essay for use in middle and high school social studies classrooms.  The essay offers a brief, completely non-comprehensive overview of Peruvian history and culture circa 2016 and is meant to present these topics in an unconventional way – that is, as if the student were travelling through, wandering, and exploring Peru on their own.  Explore the streets of Cusco and Lima, scramble through Inca ruins from Machu Picchu on down, take a slow boat up the Amazon River from Iquitos, and an even slower boat across Lake Titicaca to the floating man-made islands of the Uros.

The Inca: Andean Civilization in the Realm of the Four Parts (Free online text suited for middle or high school classroom use, guided reading questions, and suggested activities):The tremendous success of the Inca was attained by harnessing and adapting the incredible achievements of the earlier peoples of the Andes, one of only six places in the world where civilization developed independently.