COVID-19 Peru Project #26871

Support Indigenous Students in the Face of COVID19

by Instituto Chaikuni

Project Report | Jan 3, 2024
Un Shunto de Cosas (A Lot of Things)

By Lida Berru | Student Monitor

The "Promoters for Good Living" program

Dear friends and supporters,

Happy new year! We hope you´ve had a great start into 2024. May this new year be filled with joy and purpose. Since we last wrote to you, “un shunto de cosas” (a lot of things), as we say here in Loreto, have happened.

The scheduled University vacations were reduced with the intention of catching up on the delay caused by the pandemic. The demand for the students' time and resources was quite harsh, but instead of starting the new academic semester in September, a national strike of public universities began, which continues to this day, without any defined date to return to classes. Trying to make the best of this situation, we got extra busy, moving ahead with the activities of our “Promoters of Good Living”-program.

Due to the uncertainty generated by the university context, and in general by the fact of being far from their communities and family, the young students expressed their need for spaces for reflection and support. Taking this into account, we held meetings and interviews to get closer to the personal stories and motivations of each participant in the program. The insights from the talks also allowed us to adapt the structure and content of the course to best satisfy their needs and expectations. While two students stopped participating due to personal reasons, 7 new participants joined the program.

In November, in coordination with our permaculture program and our partner Huaynakana Kamatahuara Kana (the federation of Kukama Kukamiria Indigenous Women of the Marañón River), we organized a 2-day visit and training at a local plant nursery. The students learned about techniques such as the preparation and application of Biol and the grafting of citrus fruits. Not only did each student do their own grafting exercise, but they also contributed to the group telling their own experience from their communities and learned from the comments and traditional uses of others.

A few weeks later, we organized a second workshop within the “Promoters for Good Living”-program, this time at our Permaculture Center, where we spent 4 days living together and experimenting with the daily routine of “Good Living”, that is: harvesting fruits and vegetables from our integral farms, preparing food while telling the stories of origin of the dishes or ingredients, and from the tradition of each village. In addition, we developed spaces for encounters and reflection from a place that would be much more welcoming and not an additional student burden. An approach which starts from care and listening, and which uses tools such as games, conversation, and the arts, seeking experiential learning and promoting the formation of safe spaces, accompaniment, and exchange. From this starting point we got to talk about topics as diverse as the global and indigenous economy, the view from critical interculturality and personal visions on “development” and “community”.

While many of the participating students were from the Awajún people, the Achuar, Kichua and Ticuna peoples were also well represented, adding to the already familiar diversity of the resident volunteers and part of the Chaikuni team, who come from other parts of the country and the world.

We further used the time of the University lockdown to accompany some of the students in the planning of their thesis work and pre-professional practices, so they are ready when the University re-opens. Many of the students have an impressive drive and resilience.

Pitit Ahuanari, for example, never stops. Not only did she use the time to return to her community Yutupis on the far away Santiago River to begin collecting information for her research on agroforestry farms (with the aim to rescue ancestral indigenous Awajún knowledge), but she also used the time to compose several songs - some in Spanish and others in Awajún. The lyrics vary from themes such as the search for personal growth to an empowerment anthem for women, totally danceable. She will soon be making a practically self-managed video clip.

José Pacunda, also Awajún, has already started his practices at our Permaculture Center, being passionate about learning new forms of community organization and “development” and seeking to strengthen territorial sovereignty. Manasés Akintui has managed to reconnect with his passion for martial arts and is seeking - together with 2 friends - to create an association that can work with women and the community through education and strengthening the traditional culture of his Awajún people.

And finally, the guys from YAAS (see previous reports) continue to grow their handicraft business, being ambassadors of Awajún art in the multiple fairs to which they are invited to attend - thanks to their well-earned prestige -, and who now propose the idea of rescuing and strengthening the use of more traditional materials such as huayruro (Ormosia coccinea) and huitillo (Renealmia alpinia) seeds, but from the propagation and planting of their own plants.

It is a pleasure for us to be able to honor the student´s trust by allowing us to accompany them in their personal growth processes. We seek to strengthen spaces where the knowledge they bring from their community is integrated with that learned in the professional training and in city life, enriching their personal development through experience, and at the same time strengthening their humanistic tools for the role they already play in their environments and for those they decide to assume in the future.

Having closed the year 2023, we draw a very positive balance: closer ties with the students, empowerment of dreams and, above all, having established a good foundation from which with joy and perseverance we will continue to build together.

With hope and much gratitude for your continuous support,

The Indigenous Students and the Chaikuni Team

grafting citrus trees

how to prepare plant seedlings

reflecting on "development" vs "good living"

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Sep 8, 2023
Promoters of Good Living

By Stefan Kistler | Executive Director

Internship at the Chaikuni Center

Dear Friends and Supporters,

We hope that this update from our work with the indigenous students in Iquitos finds you well. Our Intercultural Education program continues to support the young students both in their academic as well as personal development processes.

After a period of recess at the University in May and the start of a new semester, we resumed the academic tutoring classes in June. Since then, we offered 6 sessions of advanced chemistry (24 hours), 19 sessions of basic mathematics (38 hours) and 9 sessions of advanced mathematics (18 hours). These classes are helping students to keep up with their courses, especially those who are in their last years of engineering degrees and have very specialized needs and demands.

Since the beginning of this year, we have been designing and running an intercultural training program that we call “Promoters of Good Living”, in which interested students may enroll in addition to their studies. We held the first module earlier this year (see previous report), and the second module is planned for later this month at the Chaikuni Center. Through exchanges, debates, cultural activities and practices, young people will develop their potential to lead positive changes in their communities, combining and integrating their experience from the urban-academic world with the traditional knowledge and the notion of well-being (=good living) in their indigenous cultures.

We are also excited to let you know that three indigenous students finished their pre-professional internships at the Chaikuni Permaculture Center, on topics which may help with forest recovery and income improvement in their communities. Jeyter, a Kukama student in his last semester, carried out a study on species diversity and economic valuation of an agroforestry system without burning. Ronal, an Awajún student, evaluated the quantity and growth of the medicinal plant Banisteriopsis caapi (Ayahuasca) planted on the lands of our Permaculture Center. Finally, Lorena, also from the Awajún people, carried out a census of seed dispersing timber species in order to reproduce them later in nurseries. These practices are necessary for students to finish their studies, but it is often difficult for them to find a place to do their internships. You might remember that in 2022 we signed an agreement with the Faculty of Forestry of the local University UNAP. Since then, internships at our Center are officially recognized by the University and count as part of the student´s degree.

Lastly, we are also happy to let you know that Felicino, Euner and Ronal, the young Awajún students who created the YAAS handicraft brand with the guidance and technical assistance from Chaikuni, were able to obtain a small grant from the state program Tourism Emprende to keep promoting and growing their business venture. This small business of making and selling necklaces, bracelets, and earrings inspired by the Awajún culture, arose from the necessity to pay for their study expenses. Today it has grown much beyond to generate benefits for the women of their communities who provide supplies for the handicrafts, and for other indigenous students that take part in making the jewelry. YAAS products have drawn the attention of ethnic-inspired designers and fashion stores in Lima, opening market access opportunities in Peru´s capital.

Ronal and Euner are also part of the students enrolled in our "Promoters of Good Living" program and, together with Felicino, they are young people with a long history of involvement in the activities organized by the Chaikuni Institute. For this reason, from our Intercultural Education program, we are especially happy to be able to accompany their initiative and share the experience and talent of these young indigenous entrepreneurs, which can be very inspiring for many other young people and communities.

As always, we´d like to finish by deeply thanking you for your continuous support to the indigenous students in Iquitos.

With much gratitude,

The Indigenous Students of OEPIAP and The Chaikuni Institute Team

Making Awajun handicrafts

The Promoters of Good Living program

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May 13, 2023
Strengthening bonds with young indigenous women

By Almendra Aguilar | Student Monitor

Dear friends and supporters,

The news that WHO declared the end to COVID-19 as a global health emergency, led us to reflect on how these lasts 3 years the pandemic changed our lives. COVID-19 accentuated gaps and visibilized problems that remained ignored. Although we are living better time, indigenous youth continue to face challenges on the road to fulfilling the dream of becoming professionals.

In these last months we have been able to take back physical spaces with the young indigenous women, to see with great joy that new students were able to enter the university, and to create areas in which we reflect with them on the role they want to play within their communities.

We were very happy to resume the women's circles, an activity that we have carried out with the students since the beginning of the program. In addition to these circles, we also involve them in activities related to arts, such as poetry, music and theater, and recently we have also incorporated personalized psychological sessions. So far, 27 women have participated, a higher number than in previous years. We believe in the importance of contributing to strengthening their capacities, as well as providing them with information and tools to help them face the difficulties of being indigenous women in the city.

After the criteria for the admission processes of the indigenous preferential modality in the local university (UNAP) were modified, the board of the OEPIAP, which we constantly advise, has been making efforts to demand conditions that improve these processes and make them more relevant. As a result, the native language and indigenous cosmovision exam was reinstated, the age limit was annulled as an application requirement and now the OEPIAP is also recognized as one of the organizations that can accredit the indigenous origin of the applicants. This, added to the academic tutoring that we offer, has allowed that, so far this year, 12 young people from OEPIAP have already entered the UNAP. In addition, at the same time, 4 other young people have entered technical colleges.

The academic tutoring has proven to be key not only for the students' admission to college but also for their permanence in it. In recent months, we have offered 10 advanced math classes, 6 basic math classes, 11 differential equations classes, 9 organic and inorganic chemistry classes, and 6 kinetic chemistry classes. Thanks to these, along with continuous monitoring and the development of personalized long-term study plans, more young people are catching up and will complete their studies in the next few years.

As of March, three young Awajún have graduated from Education and Law programs and are currently working on their theses thanks to scholarships obtained with the advice we provide. Furthermore, Roldán Tumi, whom you may remember from previous reports, published his book "Dayac Menequin", based on his thesis research about the ritual practice of toad venom acate. Roldan is currently in Brazil studying for a master's degree in Anthropology. We are very proud of him and the example he is giving to the whole world and, mainly, to the indigenous youth (you can read more about him in this article: https://chaikuni.org/news/i-do-not-lose-the-desire-to-return-to-my-community).

We are also pleased to tell you that we started the program "Building intercultural leadership for the future of the Peruvian Amazon", with which we seek to strengthen and complement the academic training that students receive at universities with tools that allow them to contextualize this knowledge and apply their skills to promote the good living of their peoples. Currently, we are working with 11 indigenous youth, who participated in a first workshop in our Permaculture Center, where they reflected critically on interculturality, different visions of development and the way different projects have been carried out in their communities.

Finally, we would like to tell you that you can already find in our Vimeo channel the stop motion videos produced by the young people of OEPIAP as part of the workshop that we made in partnership with the British Academy. You can see them here: https://vimeo.com/user20568308

None of this would have been possible without your great and unconditional support. Thank you so much for being part of this!

With much love,

The Indigenous Students of OEPIAP and The Chaikuni Institute Team

Roldan Tumi published his book "Dayac Menequin"

We started a program focused on interculturality

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