Peru has about nine million indigenous citizens, who speak 43 different languages. However, there are high rates of extreme poverty among the indigenous population and they suffer constant violations of their fundamental rights. In this context, timely access to information is a means for these peoples’ progress and integrated development. Indigenous communication makes sense when practiced within the framework, world-view, language and culture of each native community, so the indigenous peoples themselves must produce, manage and disseminate information on their peoples in the media – both conventional media and their own. In this way, the national and international society will be able to better perceive and understand indigenous peoples’ reality, needs and aspirations.

Discrimination and exclusion in the media, an almost total absence of indigenous issues on the public agenda, lack of any legal normative framework to encourage indigenous media, and even in some cases government aggression, all harm and limit the exercise of indigenous communication.

To address the situation, strengthening the Indigenous Communicators Network of Peru through technical training for its members in four decentralized meetings – to be held in the regions of Lambayeque, Junín, Moquegua and Ucayali – and a central event in Lima, will position an integrated indigenous agenda in the national political debate through quality community journalism and promote public policy-making to native peoples’ right to information, communication and access to the media. The training provided under this project will take inter-cultural, gender and rights-based approaches into account.