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The Solana Beach Eco Rotary Club is supporting Nature and Culture International, a 501c3, in their project to supply Covid19 relief to communities within their conservation areas. Now the Bosque Seco villages in southern Ecuador. These indigenous communities receive such items as food and cleaning equipment, oxygen tanks, potable water, masks, soap, disinfectants, and personal protection equipment.
In the conservation world, NCI is known for its efficient bottom up approach by working with local communities and governments from the village to the national level. Since 1996, donors have helped save 20 million acres of endangered ecosystems. These strategies result in a conservation program that works for the long-term.
The Nature and Culture International mission is to conserve biologically diverse landscapes in Latin America, in concert with local cultures, for the well-being of the planet. They are guided, first by a deep respect for the people who live in these remarkable places. They foster solutions that originate with local people working directly with local and indigenous communities to define and achieve their own conservation goals, from protection of habitats to the sustainable use of land and preservation of native cultures.
These essential indigenous communities have been hard hit by the Covid19. One example is the Shuar Kiim Center in southern Ecuador. The community isolated themselves in March when COVID-19 began spreading in the country. No longer able to sell the surplus of their crops, families found themselves with no income and limited food sources and supplies. 140 community members were forced to survive on root vegetables, sugar cane, plantains, and papayas.
Community members were finally able to acquire additional supplies after three months in isolation. However, exposure led to COVID-19 spreading within their community. Lacking basic medicine and far from healthcare services, the Shuar Kiim struggled to respond to the outbreak.
Nature and Culture International together with the FEPNASh-ZCh and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon have provided aid to the Shuar Kiim and other indigenous communities, such as Bosque Seco, in southern Ecuador. With your support, we have safely supplied 100 families, around 500 people. As we identify more communities, we are continuing our relief efforts.
Your generosity is making a difference in the lives of these families and helping ensure the protection of endangered ecosystems-and the planet.
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