Help build a new Maloka for Niwe Rao Xobo!

About Maestra Ynes, the Lopez Sanchez Family and Niwe Rao Xobo Shipibo Healing Center

Niwe Rao Xobo (meaning “Wind Plant House”) is ancestral healing center located in the indigenous community of San Francisco, Ucayali, in the Peruvian Amazon. Founded in 2013, the center is owned an operated by renowned Shipiba healer Maestra Ynes Sanchez and her family.

Maestra Ynes comes from a long lineage of Onaya (master plant) healers. She is a mother of seven children, four of whom have apprenticed with her to become Onaya healers.

At 14 years old, Ynes fell seriously ill with an unknown disease which led her to diet medicinal plants under the guidance of her grandfather and master healer, Aurelio. After successfully healing herself, Ynes decided to apprentice with Maestro Aurelio to learn from the ancestral wisdom of her Shipibo people.

A year later she undertook a diet in the forest that lasted for more than two years in complete isolation from the outside world. After that she continued dieting with her great-grandfather, Maestro and a Meraya (a healer of the highest degree), Luciano Sinuiri. At the age of 18, she began her last training diet with her mother’s uncle, Maestro and Onaya healer, Basil Gordon. These three powerful healers gifted her the base of her knowledge and experience with the sacred plant medicine and ayahuasca. Over the past 55 years she has continued to diet several times per year, and expand her knowledge, with a continuous passion to learn.

The Birth of Niwe Rao Xobo

Originally from the remote indigenous community of Royaboya, the Lopez Sanchez family moved closer to the capital city of Pucallpa so that the maestra’s Grandchildren could study at University. 9 years ago, after many years of working and saving together, Maestra Ynes and her family bought the land and initiated their dream of building their own center, a place where they could share their ancestral gifts and knowledge in service to those in need. Having their own center would also mean they would able to provide a stable income to the whole family, and a chance for the younger generations to stay close to their ancestral traditions, strengthened in their culture by the possibility of staying connected to their elders.

Little by little the center has grown in international renown and reputation, drawing people from all over the world who are inspired to learn and heal in the mystery school of the plants.

Funding Needs

Although the world lockdown created a strong financial impact on the family and the center, since re-opening last January, the family has been dedicating all remaining proceeds from their retreats to refurbishing their center and improving the facilities. In the last year they have built 6 new tambos, a chill-out space and library, new bathroom and shower facilities, and a plant sauna house.

Currently, the dining hall and kitchen as well as the maloka (ceremonial house) are falling into disrepair, and needing to be rebuilt. The funds needed to undertake these larger projects are greater than what can be met from the center’s own profit. Maestra Ynes and her family are grateful for whatever support you might be inspired from the heart to give, to help them improve and repair these essential elements of their center, and to tend the ceremonial heart of this home.

Amount needed:

Maloka building materials and labor: $17,500

Dining Hall/Kitchen building materials and labor: $5,800

Total: $23,300