Culture and Leadership

The cost of this trip includes:
Food
Transportation
Fuel
Equipment
Videographer
Total: $18,000

The Sapara people live between Ecuador and Peru. Until recently, most of the efforts towards supporting the Sapara have been focused in Ecuador. All of the communities there are fairly accessible by small plane, but in Peru they are much more remote and harder to access. In one of these remote communities is an elder who is one of the remaining speakers of the Sapara language.

A delegation of Sapara people from Ecuador will make the journey down river into Peru, which takes about 3 days between villages. Once they arrive, there will be a chance to build more connection between communities, share knowledge and experience, and create more unity.

The objectives for this trip are:

  1. Document one of the last remaining speakers of the Sapara language, his stories and cultural and spiritual wisdom.

  2. Discuss the current state of oil extractivism and align under a common mission and goal, which is to not allow oil companies into Sapara territory and to protect Sapara territory.

  3. Form a Peruvian Sapara organization in order to have a political voice and to be able to organize against the oil companies.

  4. Share the leadership experience of the Sapara in Ecuador with the community in Peru with both men and women, but with an emphasis on women involvement in order to create more opportunities for female leadership in both Ecuador and Peru.

Female participation and inclusion is essential for the future success of community initiatives as well as leadership within their individual communities and to have support to confront issues they face around health, natal care and domestic violence.

In addition, this will be an opportunity to connect with this elder, document his voice and stories in order to share with the other communities and later with the outside world. This is a vital element of Sapara solidarity and ensuring that their culture continues strong.