Sacha Wasi Indigenous Food Systems Project

Sustainable Indigenous Food Production Project at Sacha Wasi:

The indigenous Kichwa culture faces extinction due to cultural erosion that has occurred over generations.

Your donation will help us preserve this indigenous culture by supporting the Sustainable Indigenous Food Production Project at Sacha Wasi.

This project contributes to the development of new strategies of action that strengthens Sacha Wasi’s indigenous food production systems and also reinforces the food systems forgotten or guarded by the endangered indigenous Kichwa population that remains today.

During the two years of the Pandemic, many indigenous communities around the world whose income is based on Cultural Tourism, like Sacha Wasi, suffered terribly from massive food insecurities. To buy minimal amounts of food and necessities for their families, community members (mostly younger men) were forced to leave their tribes in the rainforest for long periods of time in search of work in the nearby city of Puyo. Many were required to work up to 17 hours a day for wages as little as $5 (for the entire day). Long hours with few meals and breaks created slave-like working conditions.

The leaders of Sacha Wasi pledged, "never again!"

Indigenous communities like Sacha Wasi suffered terribly from food insecurities over the past years. Indigenous communities did not have continuous physical or economic access to nutritious and safe food, and as the distance to food access grows, communities like Sacha Wasi are placed in food poverty.

Your donations help strengthen the indigenous food production systems in rural territories like Sacha Wasi.

The indigenous people at Sacha Wasi have been able to protect the knowledge that has allowed the perpetuity of their food production systems over time. This knowledge, if supported financially, can be used to combat food poverty.

"If we want to maintain our customs and traditions, we need to teach our children all our knowledge, so that the new generation does not lose the community values of customs and traditions and our language. If we do not teach them little by little, all the good of our times will be lost and forgotten." 

                - Jesus Dagua, Yachak & Tribal President

Donations support the stocking of 10,000 fish in the newly made pond. Donations also support the purchases of chicken feed, vitamins, seeds, seedlings, gardening tools, supplies, and equipment. Support will also help the purchase of a greenhouse nursery to help grow food year-round.