Founded in 2005 by Professor Ralph Bolton of Pomona College, The Chijnaya Foundation is a non-profit organization that works with the village of Chijnaya and other communities located on the altiplano of Southern Peru. Originally from villages on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the people of Chijnaya experienced a year of devastating flooding, losing their homes and lands. Bolton, then a Peace Corps volunteer, was given the daunting task of helping move the people from their original communities to land at a higher elevation on the Altiplano where they would not be victims of recurrent flooding. The current Mayor, Bruno Callata, described those years during the move as difficult, noting that at the time all the villagers and Bolton "slept like sardines in a row" in temporary makeshift shelters.

Bolton lived in Chijnaya and the surrounding areas for two years before coming back the the States. After leaving he had no contact with the village because without phones or mailing addresses it is almost impossible to communicate with the village. But Bolton never forgot Chijnaya. A man from the village who works now at the National University of the Altiplano was googling "Chijnaya" when he stumbled upon an item that caught his eye. It was Professor Bolton's curriculum vitae. The young man recognized the name as the man who helped to establish his village forty years earlier. He got in contact with Bolton. It became clear that Chijnaya was still in need of assistance. Bolton founded the Chijnaya Foundation in 2005 to provide such assistance, and each year he takes a handful of student volunteers (mostly from the Claremont Colleges where he works) to the village to spend the summer working with the village on various sustainable business ventures, micro-loan projects, health campaigns and teaching English.