(April 20, 2021 – New York City) – Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) today released A Better Future for the Last of the Incans, its newest Better Satellite World video. It tells the story of how an American university student and Speedcast teamed up to bring education and the benefits of satellite internet to the Q’eros, the last traditional Incan community in the mountains of Peru.
In 2010, a student named Hannah Rae Porst came to live with the Q’eros for a university project. When her research came to an end, she asked villagers how she could thank them for their hospitality. What they needed most, they told her, was a school. That conversation stayed with Hannah Rae and, back in America, she began raising money. Within a year, she was able launch construction of the school. To keep the improvements coming, she founded a charity called Willka Yachay, which means “sacred wisdom” in Quechua, the language of the Q’eros.
With building projects begun, Willka Yachay then went in search of a way to bring the internet to the Q’eros. It found Kidnected World - an NGO that brings interactive education to indigenous children in the Americas and Africa, with the help of a company called Speedcast. The company advised the charity on buying the right technology and sent staff to install it. Speedcast also donated a year’s worth of satellite internet service to help get everything started.
“Every day, companies like Speedcast in the space and satellite business make major contributions to our economy, society, health and human welfare,” said executive director Robert Bell. “Most of the time, these contributions go unnoticed, and our goal with the Better Satellite World campaign is to show their true value.”
You can watch A Better Future for the Last of the Incans on SSPI’s website and on Youtube.
About SSPI
Founded in 1983, Space & Satellite Professionals International (www.sspi.org) is on a mission to make the space and satellite industry one of the world’s best at attracting and engaging the talent that powers innovation. The space and satellite business has never seen a time of greater experimentation and disruption than we see today. Investment is the fuel for transformation, but people are the engine. SSPI helps the industry attract, develop and retain the talented people it needs to keep the engine turning. People who connect through high-profile events and gain recognition from prestigious awards. People who rely on SSPI for a broader understanding of the industry as much as for individual networking and career mentoring. From young people seeking a career path to industry veterans with wisdom to share, SSPI connects them all.
Talent, investment and opportunity flow to industries that make a difference. SSPI is the only organization that also promotes the enormous value of space and satellite through dramatic stories of our technologies and companies making a better world. Those stories overturn misconceptions about the industry that hold it back. They inspire our people and attract new ones to the industry. They help justify investment and give new customers a reason to care about our services and products. Through the stories we tell and the people we serve, SSPI inspires the growth of the $1 trillion space economy of the future.
For More Information
Victoria Krisman
Communications Manager
Space & Satellite Professionals International
vkrisman@sspi.org