We spend a lot of time in rural communities in order to get to know the people, their needs, and the realities of the area before starting a new project there. Over the past ten days I was in the Peruvian Amazon to do just that.
One community I visited on my trip was Nuevo Porvenir, home to the indigenous Urarinas. To get there, I took an hour and a half car ride from Iquitos to the port town of Nauta; then fifteen hours by boat up the Marañon and Corriente Rivers to Villa Trompeteros; and finally a two hour boat ride from there to the community.
Upon arriving I was greeted by community members who had been waiting for my arrival, and I was taken to where the community was gathered and preparing to head further into the jungle where they had planted bananas and yuca for a day of harvest. We drank masato and discussed their idea for a project: primary and secondary students create textbooks in their native language.
The project is a format we have implemented before and the community and students were more than up to the task, but we may not do the project. The Urarina language was finally recognized last year as an official Peruvian language and the Ministry of Education has already begun to create textbooks. Furthermore, the Peruvian petroleum company, Pluspetrol, extracts petroleum from Urarina lands and therefore invests in the community’s infrastructure (in order to make up for severe pollution…) Therefore, if the community organizes itself, they can pressure the Ministry of Education and Pluspetrol to fund their project. I prefer to use Alma funds where there are no other options – where the help is absolutely needed.
One of the hardest parts of developing and implementing educational projects in rural communities is turning down an interesting project because Alma isn’t really needed there. I am sure the project will happen without us, and I am sure it will be a success. But I am also sure that our efforts can have a deeper and more meaningful impact elsewhere, where there is little opportunity for outside assistance.
-Ian
