An activist in the Bolivian cooperative movement, Fernando Sandalio worked with the indigenous communities in Nor-Lípez Province in the 1970s, who were promoting quinoa growing once again (quinoa is known to be high in protein), with the financial and technical support of the Belgian organisation Opération Terre, an Emmaus member organisation at that time. Sandalio met members of Emmaus Chile, who travelled to Bolivia as part of a solidarity exchange, to buy the small farmers’ quinoa in order to supply the soup kitchens for disadvantaged children and therefore mitigate the impact of General Pinochet’s dictatorship. The idea took root in Bolivia and the country’s first Emmaus organisation, Emaús Oruro, was created in 1978.
