#leaders
Women leaders of the Sápara and Kichwa people of the Ecuadorian Amazon with international allies outside of the United Nations, New York City, September 2015. Photo: Emily Arasim
Patricia Gualinga, from the Sarayaku territory of Ecuador, who we got to see speak at the Women’s Earth & Climate Action Network event at the UN Climate Talks in Paris, is leading a coalition of women from the Ecuadorian Amazon in protests on International Women’s Day against Ecuador’s controversial deal with a Chinese oil company that hands over Sápara and Kichwa tribal land to oil exploration.
STATEMENT OF AMAZONIAN INDIGENOUS WOMEN IN DEFENSE OF LIFE, TERRITORY, AND ‘GOOD LIVING’ (BUEN VIVIR)
Puyo, Ecuador, Feburary 02, 2016
In the city of Puyo, we, Amazonian indigenous women, representatives of the Sapara and Shiwiar Nationalities, the Kichwa Kawsak Sacha and Sarayaku Peoples, and the communities of the Bobonaza Basin, want to express our deep concern with the contract of exploitation and exploration signed by the Ministry of Hydrocarbons with the company Andes Petroleum for Blocks 79 and 83 that directly affect the Sapara, Kichwa, Shiwiar, and Sarayaku territories.
We reject the signing of this contract which will affect our territories, the forest, the water, and the air; exactly how we have seen it occur in Block 10 in the Province of Pastaza. This is where serious social and environmental impacts have been generated, where women are the main victims and their ability to feed their families becomes impaired. There is deterioration of family health, and they suffer the division of their communities and other forms of violence.
This government policy has infringed on our rights since we have not been adequately consulted. We as women have not been considered and we have not participated in those government informational meetings. Plus, the consultations were not carried out as mandated by the ruling of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in the 2012 case Sarayaku v. Ecuador.
Blocks 79 and 83 affect more than 40% of the Sapara Nationality’s territory which was recognized by UNESCO as a “Masterpiece of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity” on May 18, 2001 because their language and culture are in danger of disappearing. This threat is increased with the development of an oil project in these territories.
Therefore, we reject this oil policy of the government and the possibility of further oil concessions in the southern Amazon; We denounce that deceptive mechanisms have been used to obtain signatures of community members in order to justify supposed prior consultation processes. We stand firm in the defense of our territories, for the defense of life and the good living of our families and communities.
In her opening remarks at the WECAN event in Paris, Osprey Orielle Lake, founder of the U.S.-based Network, recounted a conversation she’d had with an indigenous Sarayaku mother. “We carry our babies on our backs at night through the jungle,” the woman told her. “We can do anything.”
This month, Forbes published its annual 30 Under 30 recognizing bright young entrepreneurs, breakout talent, and change agents in 20 different professional sectors. Seven of these leaders studied abroad on State Department exchange programs early in their careers. These experiences shaped their identities and in many cases motivated them to become leaders and thinkers in the United States and around the world.
Exchange programs support U.S. international leadership and motivate participants to pursue important fields, like health and entrepreneurship. For example, Emilia Javorsky, a Fulbright Student to the European Union in 2012, was recognized for co-founding Arctic Fox, a company that has raised $7.5 million to test a method for freezing fat anywhere in the body, with potential to treat conditions like sleep apnea and type 3 diabetes. Emilia felt that her Fulbright Program, “…was transformative in helping me realize that after medical school I wanted to work on a macro level to transform the way we innovate in medicine.”
Evin Robinson participated in Syracuse University’s study abroad program in Hong Kong as a Gilman Scholar in the fall of 2011, where he focused on business and Mandarin. Three years later, he co-founded New York On Tech to create pathways for underrepresented students into degrees and careers in tech.
Following their experiences abroad exchange program alumni continue to develop new skills that build U.S. and international security, prosperity, and cooperation. Noam Angrist, a Fulbright Student to Botswana 2013, co-founded Young 1ove in Botswana during his Fulbright to teach students about sex education and HIV/AIDS. And Alaa Murabit, who participated in the Middle Eastern-Western Dialogue Program in 2013, is now the only United Nations (UN) high level commissioner under the age 45.
Forbes recognized three more U.S. Fulbright Student alumni who are demonstrating leadership in their respective fields. Gloria Tavera studied in Mexico in 2009 and is now a founding member and current president of Universities Allied for Essential Medicines. Adina Appelbaum studied in Egypt in 2010 and created Crim-Imm Pro Bono Project to increase access to criminal immigration legal counsel in the United States, and Anna Therese Day, who studied in Spain in 2013, is a founding member of Frontline Freelance Register.
These State Department exchange program alumni are part of a network that is over one million strong worldwide. Each year, approximately 14,000 Americans join the network, traveling on programs that range from high school study abroad to Professional Fellows. They tell us they return home with new ideas and perspectives, and pursue careers in the business, NGO, or government sectors as a result of their exchanges. These exchange alumni are addressing challenges that range from broadening access to education to countering violent extremism. Likewise, international exchange participants pursue similar opportunities after they return home.
We always look forward to what the members of the State Department exchange program alumni network will accomplish next. Check out their stories on the ECA Alumni Twitter, Facebook, and website.
Read the full story and check out links: here.
“You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. In this case, it comes from nonconformity, the courage to turn your back on the old formulas, the courage to invent the future. Besides, it took the madmen of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today. I want to be one of those madmen.”
―Thomas Sankara