The Ecuadorian Amazon region is the largest territory in Ecuador and houses nationalities and thousand-year-old cultures that maintain their way of life, customs and worldview. The Amazon does not only house there cultures but also great biodiversity in its vast green space (forest) that is considered the lungs of the Earth and has an intrinsic relationship with the nationalities that live in it. Because of this, it needs to be protected.
CONFENIAE is a regional organization that has 11 affiliated nationalities, each with its own way of life, culture, customs and territory. Its objective is to contribute to the conservation, preservation and defense of the territories. Our nationalities use resources according to their way of life and preserve their knowledge (worldview) and further enforce their rights and decisions at the national and international levels.
Due to colonization, the nationalities and their cultures have suffered drastic changes and grave impacts: social and environmental impacts, violating the knowledge and cultural values of the Amazon, where the young Amazonians, because of assimilation, started to forget their own ways of life and have adapted to cultures and customs of outsiders, especially «westernism». A large number of young Amazonians no longer practice or simply do not know the culture and practices of their own nationality. They have forgotten their crafts, hunting and fishing techniques, their gastronomy, mythology, among other things.
The communities of the Amazon nationalities and their peoples have always been disrespected with respect to their right to quality education due to their geographical location and difficult access, terrible infrastructure, and lack of basic services, teaching materials, libraries, computer centers, and internet, among other things. With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, educational needs have doubled. The Ecuadorian government has mandated that for health safety that classes will no longer be held face-to-face and that meetings have been prohibited. Virtual education has been implemented in the entire national territory. This has caused great social impacts in the lives of indigenous students, especially since they do not have electricity, much less access to the internet. For more than one semester, from March 2020 to the present, students have missed classes.
Faced with this social and cultural need, CONFENIAE together with its organizational leaders has pronounced the STATE OF EMERGENCY IN AMAZOINIA in order to demand that the Ecuadorian government respect the rights of Amazonian students (children and youth). Amazonian nationalities have the same intellectual capacity as anyone else. However, the level of educational attainment is low since they do not have enough resources and academic tools to reach the levels of the globalized world.
Faced with this need, we aspire to implement our own education system with all the complete tools including a comprehensive or holistic education that is based on the worldview of each Amazonian nationality.
For the SHIWIAR, there is no biased education or specialization, but rather integral or holistic education and specialization.
Sincerely:
Written by: Ing. Efren Nango – COFENIAE education leader, Nationality: SHIWIAR