10 Years! River & Rainforest Protectors Need You!
Tax deductible
This documentary features ancestral Black and Indigenous Awá communities who live in the Ecuadorian Chocó Rainforest Region, on the border with Colombia. They have suffered from the effects of aerial fumigation of U.S.-funded Plan Colombia, which also motivated oil palm expansion.
Many communities in the Esmeraldas Province—as well as all throughout the Ecuadorian Coast and Amazon—live surrounded by enormous extensions of oil palm. Their communal health and cultural ways of life are devastated by deforestation and water contamination caused by oil palm plantations and extractors. They also suffer abuses, expropriations, and other violations of their human rights by large oil palm companies.
Today marks the 10 years! It's the 10th anniversary of when the Afro-descendant community of La Chiquita and the Awá community of Guadualito made the bold move of presenting the first Civil lawsuit in defense of the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitutional Rights of Nature, as a subject of rights, and of the Collective Rights of two Ancestral communities. This was the first Rights of Nature lawsuit in the world, changing the course of history and taking a courageous step forward in the name of Earth’s Jurisprudence.
WHAT LA CHIQUITA AND AWÀ COMMUNITIES WANT: A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT, CLEAN WATER, AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY!
With COVID-19 ravaging its way through Ecuadorian Indigenous and rural communities, the lack of clean water and isolation is all the more dire. In partnership with the two frontline River and Rainforest Protector communities, we’ve set up an Emergency Water and Documentary Equipment Fund.
The Water Fund is to help relieve the financial burden of having to purchase 5-gallon bottles of drinking and cooking water from the city. The Emergency Support Fund is to assure they are able to access support when needed.
The documentary fund is for the youth to document when the river is polluted and other important incidents in these times of EM-URGENCY. Even in times of chaos and pandemic, the Awá and La Chiquita communities refuse to stop speaking out and defending their right to a healthy home.
The youth and several Awá and La Chiquita community leaders are at the helm of the documentary team that produced the teaser of Hope & Struggle in the Ecuadorian Chocó Rainforest featured here. Today we are in the process of completing the film. Getting this film out to the world gives them hope that the whole world will see for themselves how they are unjustly affected by the polluted waters within the toxic reach of the oil palm plantations.
Yet, the youth from Guadualito and La Chiquita share one set of computers and camera equipment between them. Especially under quarantine, the distance between them poses difficulties to transport the filming equipment between the two communities. That's why we are casting out this international net of support for the following items:
-Water Fund $1000
-Emergency Support Fund $1440
-Camera $600
-Camera Case $40
-Tripod $30
-Headphones $40
-Computer for Editing Material $1300
-Portable CD $150
-External Hard Drive $500
TOTAL $5000
Justice is long past due and communities on the ground are demanding follow-through from what their government promised: the right to freshwater and freedom from exploitation. The Afro-Ecuadorian community of La Chiquita and the Indigenous Awá community of Guadualito need you!
Roots & Routes IC, an organization that walks in solidarity with them for the past 10 years, will assure that your donations arrive in their hands.
With Determination and Hope,
Members of La Chiquita and Guadualito and Roots & Routes IC
Many communities in the Esmeraldas Province—as well as all throughout the Ecuadorian Coast and Amazon—live surrounded by enormous extensions of oil palm. Their communal health and cultural ways of life are devastated by deforestation and water contamination caused by oil palm plantations and extractors. They also suffer abuses, expropriations, and other violations of their human rights by large oil palm companies.
Today marks the 10 years! It's the 10th anniversary of when the Afro-descendant community of La Chiquita and the Awá community of Guadualito made the bold move of presenting the first Civil lawsuit in defense of the 2008 Ecuadorian Constitutional Rights of Nature, as a subject of rights, and of the Collective Rights of two Ancestral communities. This was the first Rights of Nature lawsuit in the world, changing the course of history and taking a courageous step forward in the name of Earth’s Jurisprudence.
WHAT LA CHIQUITA AND AWÀ COMMUNITIES WANT: A HEALTHY ENVIRONMENT, CLEAN WATER, AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY!
With COVID-19 ravaging its way through Ecuadorian Indigenous and rural communities, the lack of clean water and isolation is all the more dire. In partnership with the two frontline River and Rainforest Protector communities, we’ve set up an Emergency Water and Documentary Equipment Fund.
The Water Fund is to help relieve the financial burden of having to purchase 5-gallon bottles of drinking and cooking water from the city. The Emergency Support Fund is to assure they are able to access support when needed.
The documentary fund is for the youth to document when the river is polluted and other important incidents in these times of EM-URGENCY. Even in times of chaos and pandemic, the Awá and La Chiquita communities refuse to stop speaking out and defending their right to a healthy home.
The youth and several Awá and La Chiquita community leaders are at the helm of the documentary team that produced the teaser of Hope & Struggle in the Ecuadorian Chocó Rainforest featured here. Today we are in the process of completing the film. Getting this film out to the world gives them hope that the whole world will see for themselves how they are unjustly affected by the polluted waters within the toxic reach of the oil palm plantations.
Yet, the youth from Guadualito and La Chiquita share one set of computers and camera equipment between them. Especially under quarantine, the distance between them poses difficulties to transport the filming equipment between the two communities. That's why we are casting out this international net of support for the following items:
-Water Fund $1000
-Emergency Support Fund $1440
-Camera $600
-Camera Case $40
-Tripod $30
-Headphones $40
-Computer for Editing Material $1300
-Portable CD $150
-External Hard Drive $500
TOTAL $5000
Justice is long past due and communities on the ground are demanding follow-through from what their government promised: the right to freshwater and freedom from exploitation. The Afro-Ecuadorian community of La Chiquita and the Indigenous Awá community of Guadualito need you!
Roots & Routes IC, an organization that walks in solidarity with them for the past 10 years, will assure that your donations arrive in their hands.
With Determination and Hope,
Members of La Chiquita and Guadualito and Roots & Routes IC
Organizer
Juli Hazlewood
Organizer
Santa Cruz, CA
Roots & Routes Intercultural Collaborations
Beneficiary