Literacy Snapshots
SIL on the Field
Literature Promotion and Distribution—Quechua
Country: Peru, South America
Language group: Huaylas
Population: 300,000
Huaylas Quechua
Several SIL literacy teams work with speakers among the many Quechua languages. Huaylas is a Quechua language.
The Huaylas people live in small communities widely scattered throughout the high Andean valleys in north central Peru. Consequently, any literacy program among them faces major logistical challenges.
Vernacular literature is one approach that has brought positive results among the Huaylas speakers. Quechua and SIL field personnel worked together to produce a body of literature for these scattered Huaylas Quechua. But it was an appropriately-tailored literature promotion and distribution strategy that has reached communities that otherwise might not have been reached.
Photos and article submitted September 2003 by SIL Literacy Specialist Janice W. Mayer who lives and works among the Huaylas Highland Quechua of Peru.