Awichas means « grandmothers » in Aymara, an important indigenous language in the Andes, and it seems like their number keeps growing sharply very year in La Paz, Bolivia. In fact, the whole region has one the fastest aging population in the world, and most are women. The region also faces another demographic phenomena: large and continuous rural migration to cities. In Bolivia where a large majority of the rural population is indigenous, older people face a notorious shock as they migrate to cities: cultural disorientation, isolation, and the feeling of becoming a burden in a families where the structure exploded as it transited to « modernity ». As they were traditionally aging within an extended family house, this option disintegrated for many once they moved to the city.
In 1985, witnessing that fellow elderly indigenous women were, like them, the most affected, four Awichas founded a first self-help group in Pampajasi Bajo, perched in the outskirts of La Paz. Putting their thin resources in common, they built a grass-root cooperative where Awichas live together, share chores, and stay active, would it be economically or physically, within the respect of their traditions and their culture. But mostly, they just wish to help each other to « live, and die, happier together ». Although their living conditions remain difficult, still laying at low poverty levels, the initiative has definite impact on their life quality, and especially on their level of self-esteem. In a society that traditionally values knowledge, wisdom and memory of elders, having gathered in one specific and accessible place has given the group an enviable profile. This way, almost accidentally, they gained back an urban and modern version the role they occupied in their villages, namely to be the precious depositories and transmitters of traditions, culture and history.
Most of the original founders of the first Awichas group are now deceased, but the project continues.