BOARD
Eric James Rayner
Co-founder and Executive Director
Eric is a medical anthropologist who works in the southern Peruvian Andes. He first came to this region as a graduate student in 2001. He has many years of experience working with various NGOs in many countries and teaches both anthropology and Latin American studies at Utah Valley University as an Adjunct professor. In 2014, He returned to work in remote communities of the Ausangate valley which are located two and a half hours south of the former Inca capitol, Cusco Peru. Since then, he has worked there for seven consecutive seasons conducting research and ethnographies regarding the health impacts of gold mining in the Amazon basin. More recently he studies the recent impacts of tourism at Vinicunca or “Rainbow Mountain” nearby the 20,945 thousand-foot Ausangate peak. The poverty in the Ausangate river valley is extreme and the peasant farmers receive little or no benefit from the flood of tourism. Along with his colleagues, he has co-founded a nonprofit NGO primarily focused on providing clean water, nutritious lunches, and school supplies to primary aged children who are not supported by local and regional government. Please help us with our efforts to improve the quality of life for these destitute Andean communities.
