Our Objectives
Our objectives are to design and implement successful and well-integrated development projects that improve the lives of poor and marginalized indigenous and rural populations throughout Ecuador. Each project must include relevant participation and training of local populations in order to make the project sustainable. We also seek to integrate our activities in each community that we work with across 7 principal axes that we have identified:
- Health and well-being
- Education
- Sanitation
- Cultural preservation
- Environmental protection
- Sustainable agriculture
- Sustainable forms of income
Our Values
At Yanapuma we believe in modelling the change we want to create. Our collaborative and egalitarian structure as a foundation reflects our values of cooperation and constructive engagement with the problems we aim to solve. Our projects are partnerships with communities in which we work to empower community members and to encourage ownership of change processes. Only in this way will our work yield sustainable results.
We respect cultural diversity and values and seek to learn as much as we teach, to listen as much as we talk, and to really understand the cultural and social factors that affect the ability of communities to adapt to the new realities and challenges that they face.
These processes are facilitated by transparent and open channels of communication through which community members and sponsors alike have access to all relevant information and can make their voices, needs and ideas heard.
Our Beliefs
Our work is founded on the belief that the processes of globalization are inevitable. Without help indigenous cultures and communities most often end up losing control of or destroying their resource base. They lose their traditional cultural values and relationships to their environment. Thus they are drawn into a system in which they are ill-equipped to compete and are destined to remain at the bottom of the economic ladder, with under-developed infrastructure, and poor prospects for future generations.
We believe that such communities have the right to maintain control of their resources and to live dignified and sustainable lives. With the right help they can develop suitable strategies and work towards a fulfilling future. But their responses need to be coordinated across all the 7 axes previously defined in order to achieve truly sustainable lives. Thus we believe it is important to support sustainable practices on multiple levels in order to present viable and holistic options.
Our Methodology
At Yanapuma we are developing an integrated strategy for sustainable development, that is based upon encouraging participation and collaboration and avoiding paternalism. Within this model project development takes place in discrete phases and areas, but always with an understanding of how the parts will fit together into a unified strategy, and need to be developed according to the logic and circumstances of each situation. Project reporting and monitoring of results is of vital importance in this endeavour, and always forms the basis for subsequent decision making.
As a new foundation we are developing methods of helping communities to help themselves, offering our expertise, technical support, and connections both national and international in the process of defining a sustainable path for their future. This process traverses many fields; social, cultural, environmental, educational, agronomic, etc. To this end Yanapuma cooperates with other foundations in order to be able to offer a coordinated and inclusive response to the needs of any particular community. We believe it is important to support sustainable practices on multiple levels in order to present viable and holistic options.
About Us
Yanapuma Foundation is a cooperatively run foundation with 6 founder members, three full-time staff and a number of national and international student interns (click here to find out who we are). Founded in September of 2006, our mission is to help indigenous populations to manage their development in a way that allows them to protect their environment and their cultural heritage, and to manage and maintain control of their resources into the future. |
