Church World Service Launches Initiative with Indigenous People in Chaco Region of South America
Tito Recalde outside his home in Cerrito, Paraguay.
Photo: Tom Hampson/CWS
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When God created humans he said to them, "When you walk the earth, remember that you are part of all you see. Take care of the earth as you would take care of yourself."
- - Elder of the Nivacle people, Paraguay
NEW YORK – Church World Service announces the launch of a four-year program to assist over 250 indigenous communities in the Grand Chaco region of South America. A CWS-sponsored consultation, held Feb. 17 and 18 in Asunción, Paraguay, put the final touches on a coordination agreement between five highly regarded partner agencies who have long experience working with the indigenous peoples of the Chaco region in Bolivia, Argentina, and Paraguay. The initiative seeks to secure the rights of indigenous people to their lands, as well as provide needed technical assistance in areas of agricultural development, education, and the creation of small business enterprises.
The Grand Chaco is the largest forested area in Latin America after the Amazon basin, and like the Amazon is threatened by aggressive forestry and agricultural practices, as well as mineral exploration. For the dozens of indigenous communities that have called the Chaco home for centuries, these incursions threaten their way of life, their habitat, and their very survival.
The five participating agencies include Catholic, Protestant, and ecumenical groups. "The Chaco is one region," notes Miquel Castro Arze, Director of CWS partner CER-DET (Regional Studies Center of Tarija) in Bolivia. "Our problems are part of a larger pattern. We are all confronting similar challenges. By combining our energies we can compare what efforts have been most successful, have a greater regional impact, and improve the quality of life of indigenous peoples."
Specific elements of the regional strategy include:
- Training indigenous leaders on the legal basis and proven strategies for making their ancestral land claims. The goal: to recover 10,000 hectares (24,711 acres) over the course of the next four years.
- Developing land management plans for the recovered territory as well as training indigenous leaders in effective land use and animal raising techniques. This will include identifying existing indigenous land use techniques that can be applied elsewhere in the Chaco area.
- Equipping indigenous leaders to effectively engage government and business interests on issues of land use and other policies that affect indigenous communities.
- Enhancing the capacity of women artisans to market their crafts, providing a reliable source of income.
- Generating a scholarship pool for indigenous youth who commit to returning to serve their communities.
- Strengthening work of indigenous journalists and radio stations.
The five participating agencies joining with CWS in this effort are:
- Churches Committee for Emergency Assistance (CIPAE) – Paraguay
Regional Studies Center of Tarija (CER-DET) – Bolivia
National Team of the Pastoral Ministry on Indigenous Peoples (ENDEPA) of the
Argentine Catholic Bishops Conference
Foundation for Development in Justice and Peace (FUNDAPAZ) – Argentina
United Missions Board (JUM) – Argentina
Support for this new program comes from several CWS member denominations, including Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, Presbyterian Church (USA), the United Church of Christ, and The United Methodist Church/United Methodist Committee On Relief.
Profiles:
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| Liliana Torres Photo: Tom Hampson/CWS |
Liliana has been able to go to school – she is one of the first in her community to finish high school. But her family cannot afford to send her to college. No one from her community has ever gone beyond high school due to the cost of higher education and continuing discrimination against native peoples. She would like to become a nurse. "I want to help my community, especially the women and children, who don’t know how to maintain good health." A new initiative by Church World Service in the Chaco region of Bolivia, Paraguay, and Argentina seeks to provide assistance to indigenous youth, especially young women, who wish to receive a higher education. Liliana may yet realize her dream.
Tito Recalde (pictured top) is the elected leader of a small community of Toba Qum, indigenous people of the Paraguayan Chaco. Their village of Cerrito lies about 15 miles from the capital city of Asunción, Paraguay. With the help of a Catholic religious order, they were able to gain legal title to their land and lead a subsistence existence through agriculture and sale of their craft work. Their biggest challenge in Tito’s mind, however, is not economic, but cultural. "I fear the loss of our culture. Our young people are losing their language. They are forgetting our songs and dances. We are forgetting who we are."
The creation of a bi-lingual school in the community, he hopes, will begin to reverse this trend. The three-room structure houses 150 students. Tito has also recruited the elders of Cerrito to begin teaching the children the dances and songs of their people. For Tito, reclaiming their cultural identity must go hand in hand with developing a more solid economic base. "We don’t want integration with the larger culture, we want participation. We know we can’t close our eyes to the rest of the world, but we have our own vision of the community we want to build here."
Church World Service partner CIPAE (Churches Committee for Emergency Assistance) works with communities like Cerrito across the great forest called the Chaco of Paraguay, assisting indigenous peoples to find their own solutions to the challenges of land use, employment, and cultural preservation. CIPAE is one of five agencies with long experience working in the Great Chaco region of Paraguay, Bolivia, and Argentina that have joined with CWS to develop a four-year regional approach to the challenges facing indigenous people. Assisting leaders like Tito to develop new skills in dealing with local governments as well as improving their agricultural techniques are concrete steps toward realizing the vision Tito speaks about.
Learn more: CWS Chaco Initiative