Martha Segundo (l), Griselda Aria, and other participants in a Wichi women's empowerment group in the Argentine Chaco are doing handiwork together and developing new marketing channels for their wares.
Photo: Paul Jeffrey for CWS |
CWS Chaco Initiative
The indigenous peoples of the Gran Chaco region are spread across nearly 400,000 square miles of central South America, spanning parts of three countries: Argentina, Bolivia, and Paraguay. Longstanding racism, exclusion, and unsustainable development models have deprived them of their economic, social, and cultural rights, including the right to own lands they traditionally inhabited.
CWS and local partners have formed the Integrated Support Program for the Defense and Promotion of the Rights of Native Peoples from the Gran Chaco -- a coordinated effort to defend and promote the rights of the native peoples of Chaco.
Photo galleries and vignettes
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CWS Chaco Initiative 2007 Photos and captions by Paul Jeffrey for CWS. |
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Photos and stories by CWS staff David Webb, Mary Catherine Hinds, and David Allen. |
News and information
- 08/2007 Gaining ground in the Chaco
- 08/2007 CWS marks 3rd year of indigenous rights initiative in South America's Gran Chaco
- 04/2007 Land & Livelihood for Indigenous Peoples of the Chaco Region
- 01/2007 Women's voices from the "Integrated Support and Accompaniment to Indigenous Peoples of South America's Chaco Region"
- 09/2006 Grand Plan for Gran Chaco
- 03/2005 Church World Service Launches Initiative with Indigenous People in Chaco Region of South America