With the help of donations and volunteers, the Yanapuma Foundation, a fledging Quito-based organization, is taking an innovative, comprehensive approach to community development. The Foundation was brought into being by Andy Kirby, a native of Scotland, whose experience volunteering in other community development organizations in Ecuador convinced him that a new approach was needed.
The Yanapuma Foundation bases its work on a need to help indigenous communities thrive andpreserve their cultures amidst the pressures of globalization. They are currently accepting volunteers and donations to help with projects in the communities of Bua de los Tsachilla, Wachimak, and La Chimba; as well as others involving street kids in Quito. Among the unique aspects of Yanapuma is its Spanish school, which it uses to train its volunteers as well as cover its administrative costs. "The idea is that one hundred percent of donations go to fund community projects," says Kirby.
Most importantly, though, Yanapuma attempts to take an integrated approach to sustainable development. This involves active participation from the community and the promotion of development acrossa diverse range of areas. 'That means that if we discover that physical abuse is a problem in families of a community weare working in,' says Kirby, 'we have to address that issue, even if our project focus is on sustainable agriculture, because our goal is to promote a sustainable, dignified lifestyle. Basically, we try to work with the social fabric of the community.'According to Andy Kirby, one of the areas in which Yanapuma Foundation has made significant progresstowards carrying out its mission is with the Tsachilla culture in Bua. There, the effort to promote tourism lead toa project to build an ecological toilet in the community center. The project expanded to include three ecological toilets in different parts of the community. It involved a health survey and provided a lot of opportunity for education, which in turn promoted community interest in hygiene and new projects, including the renovation of the medical center. Operating in its role as coordinator, Yanapuma Foundation helped facilitate better communication between the Tsachilla and their municipal government and acquired help from Engineers without Boarders to design asanitation system for the school.
In Bua,volunteers were utilized in diverse ways. Short term volunteers participated in the construction of the ecological toilets. An engineer designed a more sanitary way to handle waste from the school. A student doing research onthe relationship between the Tsachilla and the dominate mestizo culture contributed to understanding crucial to improved cooperation and communication between the two groups. An intern working in Quito was able to usethe Yanapuma's experience to develop an integrated model for development; and another couple who wanted to experience an indigenous culture participated in a cultural exchange, a program in which volunteers act as proto-tourists to help indigenous communities develop theirtourism industry.
'Here you saw how a tourism project expanded into education and sanitation and environmental conservation,' says Kirby. 'As an integrated organization, we try to think in an integrated fashion.' For more information about volunteering or donating to The Yanapuma Foundation, go to www.yanapuma.org.
