Q'imi: A New Initiative of GCL Peru
The new representatives of GCL Peru, Katherine Alva (GCL2009) and Alessandra Calmell del Solar (GCL 2019) have designed, together with others GCL alumni, Alvaro Henzler (GCL 2007), Pía Zevallos (GCL 2008), Andrea de la Piedra (GCL 2014), Ghislaine Liendo (GCL 2017), and Pía Olea (GCL 2020), Q'imi GCL Peru. Katherine and Alessandra have launched this new initiative to promote synergies among the GCL alumni in Peru, especially during this difficult time of the pandemic. Their goal is for every GCL in Peru to feel the support of the group and develop connections both professionally and personally during and beyond the crisis.
Q'imi means support in Quechua, a native language of Peru, and it has two main objectives:
1) Strengthen the connection between members. Help the GCLs overcome any professional challenge or the projects they are implementing through feedback, contacts, or innovative ideas for improvement, and
2) Connect with special guests to learn about political, economic, and civil society aspects that are not easy to access.
Two Q'imi sessions have been held so far. The first with Salvador del Solar, a former prime minister and the second with congressmen Alberto de Belaunde and Daniel Olivares, who are also GCL. The experience is unique because they share anecdotes in a safe space and we all can see what is happening behind the scenes.
We invite the entire GCL community to renew the ties between countries and cohorts to strengthen the efforts being made and give the support that is needed in these times.
Katherine is an international consultant. Lawyer graduated from the Master in Economic Analysis of Law and Public Policy, Salamanca, Spain. Fellow of the Distinguished Humphrey Program and a graduate of the Leadership Program for the 21st Century at Harvard University. She was the Regional Director of the Office of Education in the city of Lima and Head of the General Office of Public Ethics, Transparency and Anticorruption at the Ministry of Education in Perú.
Alessandra studied Architecture and Urban Planning in Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Peru. She has a Master in Territory and Landscape at Universidad Diego Portales, Chile and studies at the Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland and Istituto Universitario di Architettura di Venezia (IUAV) in Italy. She works as an architect in her independent practice, teaching at the Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning at PUCP and in the non-profit association MUJER VALIENTE Perú, of which she is co-founder.