Description

The Mandari Panga project was created with the idea of using the profits from the camp to directly benefit the local community and to improve the quality of life for its people, both in the short and long term. The project operates under a signed agreement with the community, which includes direct payments to the community for services provided, transparency in income and expenses, and contributions to community projects. These projects will be focused on improving the following situations in the community education, employment, and medical care.

Education

In 1997, the two classrooms of the Bilingual Intercultural Community Educational Center (CECIB) Modesto Jordán Illanes Vargas were built in the community center. This school currently provides initial education and the first six years of general education, but it serves the 40 girls and boys of the Commune with only one teacher for the 6 levels and only two classrooms. Many boys and girls from the community do not even complete these first years. On average, of 10 children who begin their studies, only 7 finish. There are many reasons for this, including the location of the school in the town center and financial resources of the community residents. Families are dispersed along the Tiputini River, meaning that for students who live several kilometers downstream, they require between 2 and 3 hours of paddling in small canoes upstream to arrive at 8 am and start classes. When it rains, it is difficult to travel by river or land, often meaning students do not attend school. Parents do not encourage their children to study because they do not have the financial resources to pay for transportation either to the school in the town center, or to the high school in the neighboring Santa Rosa Community. This project hopes to improve the infrastructure of the community school, improve access to both the local school and the distant secondary school, and in general assure that all youth in the community has the opportunity for a quality education.

Employment

The community currently has 89 members of working age, but of those, about a third do not have productive work. Of those who do work, many must travel for hours for temporary, low paying jobs in the city of Coca often for only a few hours a week. Most members of the community work on their land in small scale agriculture.

The goal of this project is to offer another employment option for the members of the community, one that offers relatively good pay and does not require hours of transport. Work at the camp will be on a rotating basis, with the idea of training many members of the community to work at the camp. The project also aims to encourage more small scale organic production of traditional agricultural products to be used in the food at the camp, also providing more income for the community members. With the profits from the Mandari Panga camp, we hope to invest in infrastructure improvements in the community to slowly improve all of the above situations, with the goal of improving the health of our residents and better protecting the fragile environment.

Medical Care

There is currently no health clinic, but a medical brigade from the Ministry of Public Health sporadically comes to the community for a day to attend to the health needs of the entire community. If there is an emergency, the patient is transferred to a small clinic in Dayuma, and in more serious cases they travel to the hospital in Coca.

Traditional medicine is practiced in the community. For pregnancies, a midwife attends to the mother in her home. In case of snakebites, a mixture of native plants are used including kurarina (Potalia amara), for ajirinri (Zingiber officinale), campyak (Herrania balaensis) and others. Medicinal plants are also used to cure colds, respiratory problems, fever, headaches, stomachaches and soreness.