Donna Sauñe
Donna (Jackson) Sauñe is the daughter of Wycliffe missionaries and grew up in Peru. She married a Quechua Christian leader and has served with the Runa Simi Mission in Peru, South America, for over 30 years. This mission, made up of Peruvian national missionaries, takes the Gospel to the indigenous groups of Peru and promotes God’s Word in their mother tongue languages.
Donna´s husband Romulo worked with a translation team for many years so that his people might have the Word of God in their own tongue. After the Bible was translated, Romulo knew it would fall on the Quechua churches to promote the Scriptures throughout the Quechua world. Runa Simi was founded in 1983 to support the Quechua churches and other national Bible translators. Romulo was president of Runa Simi until 1992, when he was killed by Shining Path terrorist. Donna continues to work with the Runa Simi team of missionaries in Peru. She heads up Runa Simi’s Literacy, a Bible based program that trains Quechua women to teach literacy in their churches and communities. She also helps with administration, reporting, and translation for facilitating Runa Simi’s partnerships and relationships.
After the death of her husband, Donna raised her four children in Peru. Kusi and her husband Pablo are now in charge of administration at the Runa Simi Mission Center, also the social media and public relations, along with local outreach to youth. Tawa is the president of Friends of Runa Simi along with stateside public relations, fundraising for mission projects, and various other administrative tasks. Donna also has a daughter, Qori, who is a doctor in Colorado Springs and recently married to Joey Charles. Donna´s oldest son (Romulo) is a lawyer in New Mexico. Donna has seven grandchildren, Gabriel, Andres, and Caleb (children of Pablo and Kusi Saccsara). Juliet, Eva, Augustine (children of Tawa and Laura Sauñe), and Nina (daughter of Romulo and Galadriel Sauñe).