People from across the Gran Chaco region came together to learn from one another about sustainable ways to provide food and clean water. Here, special clay pots help plants retain enough water to thrive in the Chaco’s arid climate. Photo: CWS
SANTA FE, Paraguay — Without a new peer exchange program, Omar might not learn new ways to help feed his community.
“I feel inspired by what I have learned from my Bolivian friends – they have only a small amount of land but have managed to do many things,” says Omar Suarez, leader of the community of Nepoxen.
Omar is like more than 200,000 other indigenous people in South America’s Gran Chaco region – who for thousands of years lived in harmony with their eco-system before losing most of their land and today live in extreme poverty without access to stable sources of food and clean water.
Church World Service, with support from Foods Resource Bank and community-level partners CERDET in Bolivia, andMingara and CIPAE in Paraguay brought together 100 people from across the Gran Chaco, a span of some 400,000 square miles.
“We’re trying to bring together people who are battling the same things for the same reasons,” CWS Latin America/Caribbean Regional Coordinator, Martin Coria says. “It’s one thing for experts to come in and help. But bringing peers together to learn from one another we think is even more effective.”
For two days representatives of 10 communities from Bolivian and Paraguay met in a church hall in the community of Santa Fe – El Estirbo. Some travelled for two days to arrive – bringing with them seeds, crop samples and handicrafts to share with their colleagues. For many it was their first time meeting indigenous communities from another country.
CWS leads a long-running program to help the indigenous people of the Gran Chaco secure legal title to their ancestral territory, and to use the land in ways that are economically, socially and culturally sustainable. This new project in partnership with FRB focuses on bringing desperately needed food and nutritional security to these communities through simple but effective farming techniques A recent food and nutritional survey carried out by the project indicates some communities endure chronic malnutrition in children under 5 years old as high as 95 percent.
From Paraguay representatives from the communities of Nepoxen, Kenaten, Saria, Santa Fe – El Estribo and San Lazaro participated representing Enxet Sur, Sanapaná and Guarani Ñandeva peoples, and from Bolivia the communities of Salado Grande, Chimeo, Ñaguanurenda, Tentapiau and Choroquepiau representing Guaraní. The objective of the exchange was to share information on progress and different ways of working.
Community representatives from Bolivia told how they have had to change many aspects of their way of life. While once they lived from the Pilocomayo river – increased and uncontrolled pollution and sedimentation has made the river almost unusable.
“Up until recently in one night we could catch 80 or more fish,” explained Veronica Arteaga from Tentapiau. “Now there are almost no fish at all – if we are lucky we catch 4 or 5 in one night. Now we have to learn how to produce and consume new kinds of foods.”
At the Santa Fe meeting, Veronica heard from peers who have also been forced to find new sources of food and taken to raising livestock. Others found solidarity in the stories recounted by others, of being forced from ancient lands without any recourse to fight it.
“We used to have the forest and all its fruit,” says Cesar from the community of Nepoxen. “We were able to hunt. In the past few years the forest has been disappearing and we have lost our land. There are no animals for us to hunt. We do the best we can with the land we have but the foreigners [non-indigenous people] are destroying what they have – cutting down the forest and drying up the land, reducing the capacity of the soil to produce.
“With the help of this project we have begun to improve our infrastructure and really begin to develop our community,” Cesar said.
Omar sees the gathering as a catalyst for change.
“Indigenous to indigenous exchange is very important – it provides a space for reflection amongst brother and sisters who share a common history,” Omar said.