Agroforestry the Peruvian Amazon

Dear all

First, as always, many thanks for your ongoing support.

The last thre months have seen a number of significant organizational changes as we increasingly embody our vison of being an intercultural organization.

• Profesor Eli Sanchez has been appointed in the role of Director of Intercultural Education. Profesor Eli has a long and distinguished career in intercultural education as well as great experience in working within the indigenous peoples movement in Peru. He was vice president of AIDESEP, the national Amazonian peoples organization and continues to lead the educational initiatives for ORAU, the regional indigenous peoples organization.  Now leading a consortium of three organizations - ORAU, AIDI, (Asociación Indigena de Desarrollo Integral), one of our key partners, and Alianza Arkana - Profesor Eli is developing an innovative training program for intercultural teachers for the year 2018

• As Profesor Eli has taken on my former role of Intercultural Education Director, I have changed role to Director of Research and Organizational Development

• We have apppointed Shirley Jane Mori Cairuna as our second Shipibo trainee. She will be working in the areas of eco-social justice and work with young women

• Daniel Matthews has been appointed Director of Eco-Social Justice. Daniel has been working with social movements in Peru, largely based in Lima, form the 1970's. He is also a published poet and has a Doctorate in Popular Latin American Literature.

• Interns/Researchers. As our reputation grows, more people are applying to work with us as volunteers, interns or researchers. We have two interns coming from a Masters program in International Development at the universitry of Jerusalem with us for four months between September and December this year. We have a student of social work at the university of Berne, Switzerland, coming to do his internship with us between August 2017 and February 2018. We are also talking with two students from the university of California in their final year of a degree program in 'Community and Environmental Studies' about doing internships with us from June to December 2017.

• Key roles now filled. From March, we have a Fundraising Coordinator startng to work with us and, from September, a Communications Coordinator will join us.Both people will stay for at least one year. These are both key volunteer roles that receive a small stipend as well as free accommodation.

I have also written a recent blog here called 'Crafting an Organization' about the way Alianza Arkana is evolving.

Any questions or comments you can always email me at: paul@alianza arkana.org

Best wishes  Paul

Dear all

As always many thanks for your support.

The last three months have been uncharacteristically very hot in Pucallpa, in the heart of the Peruvian Amazon. Usually these months are cooler as the rainy season approaches. Sadly, I think this is climate change really starting to bite here. As always the people most affected are the indigenous and other vulnerable populations.

If you have not already seen it, please look at our new video of the work in Santa Clara. It was made by a highly professional videographer who has just finished working with us for three months.

I have just come back from a two day visit with 25 people from the Universeum of Gothenburg, in Sweden, to the Shipibo community of Santa Clara. This was their second visit in two weeks and is part of our support to the community alongside the permaculture/intercultural education project we have there.

The visit was a great success - see the photos, where the Swedes also shared aspects of their culture (¡like Papa Noel!). Also see more photos on our Facebook site:

The other really good news from the community is that the young people there are increasingly taking intiatives and breaking out of the cycle of dependency on external help. They have recently formed an association and want to talk to us about their ideas for creating sustainable livelihoods in the community, which could include further development of ecotourism in the community and the cultivation and sale of medicinal plants.

Our intercultural book for Shipibo primary school children continues to progress well. We now have all 30 paintings of plant spirits from Shipibo artist Lastenia Canayao (see photo for another example of her work) and also 30 botanical drawings of the plants. These will now be sent to New York City, where we are working with the Shipibo Conibo Center for Contemporay Arts there, who are helping us design and produce the book.

We have also created a strategic plan to increase the number of Shipibo people working in Alianza Arkana. This can be viewed in the accompanying document. We have already appointed one talented young Shipibo woman to work with us - first as an apprentice in the work in eco-social justice and with young people and then to take on a key role in one of these areas.

Finally, we had a very successful staff retreat last Friday focussed on funding and the future of the organization. We continue to attract high quality volunteers and researchers, including more Peruvians who can stay much longer term with us as they do not have issues with visas to be able to stay in Peru.

Any questions/comments please contact me at: paul@alianzaarkana.org

Best wishes

Dr Paul Roberts

Director Intercultural Education

Alianza Arkana

• Outline of Strategic Plan (DOC)