Native Future Newsletter November 2014

Wounaan land rights are at the heart of Native Future’s mission. Since 2004, Native Future has been helping Wounaan of Panama to gain control over their traditional lands. In 2008, Native Future launched the two-year Wounaan Land Tenure Project and wrote a plan in which we envisioned,

…a world, ten years from now, in which Río Hondo, Platanares, and Majé-Chimán have legal title to their traditional lands, and that title is respected and enforced by Panama. We imagine these communities continuing to manage their lands in a sustainable, productive and conservation-oriented manner, just as they have done for generations.

This vision has not changed, but the challenge has become more acute. While legal progress was made per the passage of Law 72 in 2008 and two Wounaan communities received titles in 2012, Wounaan have reported more invasions of their lands and expropriation of their natural resources. Indigenous lands are often the final vestiges of intact tropical forest in Panama (besides national parks), and where the last stands of high value tropical hardwoods can be found. Wounaan forests are targets and their trees are harvested with little if any compensation to Wounaan. Logging roads are built which just makes it easy for farmers to access Wounaan territory and clear forests for pasture on which to raise cattle and grow their crops. It is one of many examples of the need for increased Native Future commitment and the Wounaan Land Rights Program.

Click here to receive a copy of the Wounaan Land Rights Program description.

The Wounaan Land Rights Program deepens Native Future’s commitment to Wounaan to secure their territories and the sustainable management of their forests. It will bring more sustained and targeted technical and financial resources to niche activities that add value to and support on-going efforts over the next four years. It will also shore up the foundation on which Wounaan derive the strength to defend their forests – their people. The Wounaan Land Rights Program includes:

Wounaan Land Rights Defense – Supports Wounaan legal assistance needs and strengthens Wounaan capacity to defend their rights. Activities include the development of a sustained legal defense fund and paralegal training of Wounaan community leaders.

Wounaan Territorial Integrity - Increase their capacity to monitor and control access to their land and carry out activities that protect and conserve their forests such as boundary demarcation and reforestation.

Wounaan Self-Governance - Strengthen and develop Wounaan leadership and communication, in turn strengthening their governance. Native Future will continue to support communications training and technical assistance, leadership development and Higher Education Scholarships.

We knew from the start this would not be easy. And now we see the world “ten years from now” on the near horizon. So, this year, after extensive conversations with Wounaan leaders and other collaborators, we have reaffirmed our dedication to the vision and to its realization over the coming four years. We’re striving to see the vision attained by 2018.

Thank you for your continued support of Wounaan and Native Future. Donate today! And when you donate by December 31, 2014, your donation will be matched 1:1 by three dedicated Wounaan supporters up to a $10,000 goal! With your support, we will help Wounaan achieve their land title and forest protection goals.

Wounaan leaders and partners at July 2014 planning meeting.

The complete Wounaan Land Rights Program description can be requested on our website. Or email the Land Rights Program Coordinator.

Message from the President, Julian Dendy

Thank you for continuing to support our voluntary work with Panama's indigenous Wounaan and Ngäbe–Buglé peoples. Overcoming the barriers to improving the quality of life for some of Panama's most marginalized communities remains a challenge.

We are hopeful the new political administration will renew attention to their situation, but remain committed to making the most efficient use of our limited resources through long-term partnerships focused on both individual and community empowerment.

Please check out the UAC program, which is helping young students bridge the gap between life in their village and a university education. The Basilio Perez Scholarship is still going strong, thanks to the dedicated efforts of director Sara Archbald. After comprehensive discussions with community leaders, who are facing complications with their land titling efforts, the Land Tenure program is diversifying and enhancing its activities.

As always, without patience and support from friends like you, we couldn't do any of this. So, thanks!

Kispo Mendez
Basilio Perez Scholarship Co-Founder

In just 2 hours of good times with good people, more than $9,000 was raised in August to help indigenous kids in Panama go to school. In southern Maine, an amazing group of volunteers put in a few more hours to help make it happen. Kispo Mendez, El Jacinto, Panama, was there to help us.

Kispo and his son Omar.

Kispo’s is not a rags to riches journey. In his era, school ended at third grade. At 18, illiterate, he went to the city, worked odd jobs, learned to read and write at night.

Kispo returned to his village, married, raised eight children. His home today still has mud walls, dirt floors, no indoor plumbing. He hikes miles to get to a road or to his plot of land where he grows corn, rice, and beans. The food he grows is insufficient to sustain his family between growing seasons.

Kispo is exceptional because of his work on behalf of his village. His savvy helped bring food and farm cooperatives, a health station and fresh water to El Jacinto. In 2000, he and Basilio Perez applied to have a Peace Corps volunteer to live and work with them, leading to this scholarship program. Five of his eight children have received aid; three have graduated from high school; one, Omar, studied 3 years in the university and then veered off to join COPA airlines training programs.

Thanks to COPA, Kispo proudly joined son Omar on his first flight to Maine in August. They helped raise money not only for the 13 farm coop families in El Jacinto. More than 140 young people from many indigenous villages, Ngäbe, Buglé, Wounaan, will receive essential aid to pay for uniforms, transportation, housing, and tuition.

This is how native peoples survive and thrive.

Sara Archbald
Education Coordinator

Universidad al Campo (UAC) Update

Hello from Panama! The efforts to prepare the next generation of key farmers in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé continue with the Universidad Al Campo (UAC) project . . . thanks to all of the support that we receive from Native Future. UAC is a Peace Corps volunteer operated project designed to be a long-term effort at alleviating the extreme poverty and malnutrition in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé – the most food insecure indigenous region in Panama.

UAC Participants at an Orientation.

Since its beginning in late 2012, UAC has helped orient hundreds of high school students to the enrollment process at the University of Panama. This is an orientation that would otherwise not happen. This year over 200 applications for studying agriculture at the University of Panama in Chiriqui (just 2 hours away from the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé by bus) were submitted by Ngäbe-Buglé students to participate in the UAC sponsored series of computer training and professional skills workshops, university orientation sessions, and entrance exam support team.

This year UAC expanded its orientation coverage to include 10 different high schools within the Comarca Ngabe-Bugle: Buenos Aires, Peñón, Cerro Pelado, Chichica, Sitio Prado, Llano Ñopo, Cerro Puerco, Soloy, Punta Peña, and Hato Chamí, in order to reach the vast majority of indigenous students in high school that may be dreaming about college but don’t know how to make that dream come true. What most students are surprised to learn is how affordable the University of Panama is ($40 per semester) and all of the support that exists for indigenous students to go to the UP in scholarships and work study programs. UAC serves to connect students to existing opportunities.

Participants are required to attend all training workshops, pay many of the fees (including half their registration fee - $15 - and two thirds of their first semester tuition - $27). UAC coordinator Soraya Place, Peace Corps Volunteer, explains that, “participants that pay more of their fees and a bigger part of their tuition are more successful and less likely to drop out when school is difficult because they are more invested personally. Give away projects have done a lot of damage in the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé. With the UAC project there are no hand-outs. We require that participants develop a microbusiness and save money (in a bank account that we help them open) to pay for some program expenses. This shift away from hand outs and more towards resource connection and participant self-investment is the difference between dependence and empowerment.”

Of this year’s 200 plus applicants, UAC was able to train and support 28 participants through the preparation and college enrollment process. To date UAC has helped 44 students enroll in the University of Panama. Help us to continue this mission and connect even more indigenous applicants to their dream of attending college. Donate to the Universidad Al Campo project through the Native Future website. Your support will make an enduring contribution to the empowerment of the indigenous youth of the Comarca Ngäbe-Buglé. Check out our most recent 3 minute YouTube video (it really is awesome and sometimes makes me cry! – check it out and share it with all your friends) to see some of the students involved and learn more about what we do at UAC by clicking this link.

Thank you for your support!

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Please make checks payable to Native Future and send to Native Future, 34 Taylor Street, Portland, ME 04102, or donate online at nativefuture.org.

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