Support Shipibo-Konibo Change Makers

The main focus of our work in the last three months has been finding someone to replace our former Director of Ecosocial Justice, Tom Younger, who did such a great job with us and sadly had to go back to the UK when his father became ill.

We are delighted that we have now found two people who will work with us in this area.

The first is Daniel Matthews, who is Peruvian. Daniel has been involved in social movements in Peru snce the 1970's and so brings a wealth of experience with him. Additionally, he has a Doctorate in Latin Americal Literature and is a published poet.

The second is Jane Shirley Mori Cairuna. Shirley is a young Shipibo woman and graduate in agro-forestry from the Universidad Nacional Intercultural de la Amazonia (UNIA) - the first indigenous university in Peru, based about ten minutes away from our offices in Yarina. (We are supporting six students with scholarships at this university.)

Shirley will be working with us first as a trainee with a view to assuming a paid role in six months time, when we have funding for that. She will focus on the courses we want to give young people in communities about eco-social justice and also alternative livelihoods.

The highlight of our work this month was visit to the community of Calleria, which is one of the few Shipibo communities who are successfully managing the forest in their ancestral lands. Shirley wrote an excellent blog (in Spanish and soon to be translated into English and also Shipibo!), which you can read here.

In the future, we want to offer workshops in other Shipibo communities, bringing the people from Calleria to share their experience, to look at how other communities might successfully manage their own forests, rather than granting concessions to mestizo logging companies, which is what happens at the moment in at least 80% of Shipibo communities

Many thanks for your ongoing support for this important work.