Note from editor: Post written by Chi Do, a passionate Jolkona volunteer.

Nested in the foothill of the mountains leading to Machu Picchu is a small town called Ollantaytambo. We visited Awamaki, a non-profit grass roots organization that was revamped in 2009, yet its beginnings are decades old. Their mission is to provide support for highland communities, especially of benefit to the women and children who reside there.

Awamaki’s aesthetically decorated store brings weaving and knitting products to consumers. These materials and pieces come from communities deep in the mountainside, handmade by the local families. It is truly a family business with help from the wife, husband and their children. In this way, Awamaki provides business opportunities that strengthen the whole community. Awamaki has recently implemented a mobile clinic program which provides medical assistance in remote areas. This fulfills a great need, as horses are the only mode of transportation for these locations. Sustainable tourism is another interesting aspect of Awamaki. It makes perfect sense as Ollantaytambo is a town that relies heavily on tourism. It is a great idea for incorporating social enterprise in their strategies, as well as generating a stable source of funding for Awamaki’s programs.

What stuck out to me the most was the high number of volunteers Awamaki gets every year.  We met only 5 volunteers during their quieter season, but they can get up to 25 volunteers at peak time. Most are young adults from the United States; high school or college graduates, young professionals who look for a change in their career directions, or just wanting to learn about a different world than their own. We spoke to Amy, a current volunteer. She gave up a job offer right after college to volunteer with Awamaki for 6 months. She desired to pursue a passion of serving the underprivileged.  There was also Jon and Emily, a couple from Chicago who are spending the next 6 months contributing to the programs at Awamaki in any way they can. As I hear more stories from the volunteers, I feel proud. We are the young generation who think about others, who want to make a difference in this world, and who do something to keep that passion going.

Awamaki became a partner of Jolkona in late 2011. As I see it, this partnership has the potential to provide additional opportunities for volunteer exchange or connection with sustainable tourism.

Check out their work here and provide any support as you see fit.

Participate in our Jolkona campaign for Awamaki.

Join the Twitter conversation with Jolkona, or stay connected with Facebook.

Are you one of the 1.7 million people who joined the group on Facebook to show how much you miss the planet formerly known as Pluto? Or are you active in a network like Brazen Careerist or Seattle 2.0 because that’s the professional circle you hang with?

People are passionate about joining other like-minded individuals. This is one of the main reasons why I love the work I do at Jolkona managing our various communities and working with our passionate team of volunteers. And this idea of “community” is something that is engrained in our vision of making giving fun and a part of every day life.

In going with this vision, I’m excited to announce the Jolkona Giving Communities feature we’re rolling out on Jolkona.org today. This feature was created as an easy way for you to organize your friends, colleagues, and extended network and view the overall impact you’re making together.

Giving Communities

We have a few active communities right now for passionate philanthropists like the Seattle Social Media Club Changemakers, Jolkona Team, and San Francisco Bay Area Hotties (one of my favorites).

These giving communities can be whatever you want them to be and are a fun way to see the change your network is making in the world.

How do you join a giving community?

Community membership is open to every single Jolkona donor. To join a community, follow these steps:

1. Go to the community page – either through the communities homepage or through the specific community’s page
2. Click the orange “Join community” in the upper right hand corner
3. Log into your Jolkona account
4. Congratulations, you’ve just joined one of Jolkona’s first giving communities!

You can always leave a community if it’s no longer applicable to you. (But why would you want to do that?)

Want to create your own community?

It’s easy!

1. Go to this page and fill out the form to start a giving community.
2. Upload a picture, include your hashtag to make your community more social, etc.
3. Invite your friends to join your community and start tracking your impact.

Community owners can always edit the content on community pages.

What do you think about this feature?

Play with it, try it out, and let me know what you think in the comments. Also, are there any features that you’d like to see us add in the future?

We’re excited to hear what you think!

Throughout my trip thus far, I have seen over 10 projects and many innovations around the pivotal role community plays in development. Everywhere I have seen examples of individuals who depend on their community for support in order to advance themselves and in turn enrich the well being their neighbors. In turn I have seen communities come together to help those who need it the most. Because of this model, this inherent need to build up each other and those around them, these groups of individuals create change by organizing their efforts together.

I call this “Powered by Community” and here is the impact community can have in affecting change:

1. Foster closer community through honesty and openness. Members of the community of Dago, Kenya come to together once a year for the Kick It with Kenya Soccer Tournament.  Time is made to connect and openly share ideas with other communities who come over as visitors to  the tournament. Making time to honestly share helps with community growth and building long-term relationships.
2. Break taboos and stigmas. Talking about HIV and AIDS used to be a big taboo in African villages like Dago. Now every community has a voluntary counseling and testing center (VCT) where the conversation about the prevention of HIV and AIDS is commonplace. It is far easier to change long held beliefs if change is being done as a collective whole.
3. Continue traditions. Families have started to see their members spread out geographically. In a family with 5 children, most might move out to the city or even another country. Yet, during Christmas, everyone attempts to come back home to reconnect with their roots and share stories – continuing a tradition that has been in place for generations.
4. Improve health. In Dago, Community Health Workers organize their own communities to educate themselves about current health conditions, provide preventive measures, and distribute medications to those in need. Providing this much-needed service at a reduced cost increases the prevention of illnesses to all within the village.
5. Educate the youth. Every community has a primary school with the goal to send every child to school. In addition, communities are finding ways to support continuing education of the brightest students so that every family can continue to prosper. For example, Dago’s orphanage has solar power – giving the children ability to study after dark, while 99% of the homes in Dago don’t have power at all.
6. Share risks. In the village of Kiminini, Kenya, women pool their savings to make loans to their peers. The borrower needs to get signatures from other women in her group before applying for the loan. This way, the women in the community take the risk of having to pay back the loan in case the borrower defaults. Distributing risk empowers the community to insure the borrower is successful.
7. Share responsibility. Just like distributing risks, the women in Kiminini understand the share responsibility amongst the group members to make sure that the borrower pays back the loan on time by distributing ownership for loan amongst members of the group.
8. Build skills. Outside of Kampala, Uganda, an orphanage houses close to 100 kids during the holidays. They kids don’t have a family to go to. Yet, they are spending the holidays learning various dance techniques like their own regional dances as well as salsa and other contemporary styles. Encouraging learning during what would typically be a difficult time for these children raises their self-esteem and further develops their sense of cultural belonging.
9. Achieve self-sustainability. In Dago, Kenya, the villagers are implementing farming initiatives that will ensure that they can meet the local food needs and have all the pieces in place for self sustainability now and for future generations.
10. Have a family. The community provides a family to everyone, including those who don’t have one of their own. In Dago, the community comes together to support widows with housing, food, and land for farming.

How do you define community?

Last month, Seattle 2.0 announced the finalists for the second-annual Seattle 2.0 Awards, the premier tech awards that honor and celebrate “the best of the best” from the tech startup scene in Seattle. One of the categories this year is Best Nonprofit Startup, set out to recognize the startup has done the most to apply technology to solve social problems—and Jolkona Foundation has been nominated!

We are humbled to be a finalist for this award and honored to be nominated along with other amazing nonprofits. Finalists were chosen by a committee and you get to vote on the winners.

We’d appreciate your support by voting for Jolkona as “Best Nonprofit Startup” in the Seattle 2.0 Awards. It only takes a few minutes to cast your vote here on Seattle 2.0′s site.

We would like to thank the selection committee and everyone behind Seattle 2.0 for the nomination! And we’d like to thank you for your support as we continue to inspire and empower a new generation of giving.

Winners are announced at the Seattle 2.0 Awards ceremony on Wednesday, May 19th. The awards ceremony sounds like a fun night. In addition to announcing the winners, they’re hosting a Poker Tournament and a Startup Showcase. Some of us from Jolkona will be in attendance, will you?