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More About Our Chosen Charity
The Pachamama Alliance
The Pachamama Alliance (www.pachamama.org)
was established in 1995 by Bill
and Lynne Twist in response to a
request from the Achuar, an
indigenous people deep in the
Amazon region of Ecuador. The
Achuar were seeking a
partnership with people from the
modern world who could aid them
in protecting the rainforest and
their way of life. After working
in partnership with these
talented, visionary people, we
have come to recognize that
indigenous insight can make a
critical contribution to
addressing the complex issues we
face in our modern world. Thus,
we have a two-fold mission:
1) to preserve the Earth’s
tropical rainforests by
empowering the indigenous people
who are its natural custodians,
and 2) to contribute to the
creation of a new global vision
of equity and sustainability for
all – and the implementation of
that vision.
Work in the Amazon
The key strategy of our work in
the Amazon has been to
strengthen indigenous people’s
ability to protect their rights
and interests. We provide our
indigenous partners with the
knowledge, skills and experience
they need to be able to
translate their needs into the
language of modern society—a
language of rights, law, plans
and finance—so that they may
influence and prevail in
deliberations about the future
development of their
territories. Through our work
with these groups over the past
10 years, strong indigenous
federations have been formed
that stand as models for other
groups. These federations allow
peoples’ voices to be heard,
giving them the power to shape
their own destiny. Hearing of
this success, other indigenous
groups have joined us.
We currently work in partnership
with five groups in the Amazon
region of Ecuador and Peru,
representing a total of five
million acres of rainforest.
This partnership and
collaboration with other
non-governmental organizations
was the basis for a feasibility
study for Plan Verde (Green
Plan) for Ecuador, recently
endorsed by Ecuador’s new
President, Rafael Correa. During
the coming year our focus is to
move forward on exploring
economic alternatives to oil
development in these five
million acres. We have also been
invited to provide input on
wording for a new Constitution
for the country of Ecuador,
embedding language within it
that protects pristine
rainforest lands and the
indigenous people who live
there. Also, we are working to
train Achuar leaders to assume
the complete management and
ownership of the Kapawi Ecolodge
by 2008, providing a source of
revenue for their communities.
Awakening
the Dreamer Initiative
In March 2005, we launched a
concerted effort to address the
second part of our mission,
through the CONTACT
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Awakening the Dreamer
Initiative. Our indigenous
partners, who still live in
their traditional Earth-honoring
ways, refer to our modern
worldview as our "dream" and
have urged us, for the sake of
all life, to "change the dream
of the North," since it is our
dream—our desires and
appetites—that is driving the
destruction of the rainforests
around the world. The Initiative
addresses this request by
informing, inspiring and
supporting participants in
bringing forth an
environmentally sustainable,
spiritually fulfilling, socially
just human presence on this
planet.
The starting point of the
Initiative is a Symposium—a
profound inquiry into the
assumptions and beliefs that
allow citizens of the modern
world to continue acting and
living in a way that is
unsustainable. This inquiry
includes the topics of
sustainability, spiritual
fulfilment and social justice,
and how these issues
interrelate. The Symposium is
also an opportunity to consider
what each of us can do - both
individually and cooperatively -
to move the world in a new
direction. This change in
viewpoint is supported with
community events, resources, and
ways to connect and take action.
We believe this Initiative is
both a powerful catalyst to
foment global awakening
and a call to action.
The response to Awakening the
Dreamer has far exceeded our
expectations. Starting with 21
sessions the first year, the
Initiative grew five-fold the
second year and has now reached
over 10,000 people in 12
countries. Many participants
continue to work with Pachamama
to spread the message and take
action in their communities. In
response to this tremendous
demand, we trained more than 360
facilitator’s worldwide in 2007
and that number continues to
grow.
2007 Accomplishments:
Our Work in the North
Significant work has been done
to deepen the effectiveness and
reach of the Awakening the
Dreamer Symposium:
10,000 people have attended more
than 450 Symposiums in over 100
cities and 12 countries,
including Indonesia, Mexico,
Canada, Australia, UK, Holland,
Belgium, Sweden, Germany,
Ecuador, Puerto Rico, and the
US.
A powerful half-day version of
the Symposium was developed
produced in 2007.
The number of trained Symposium
Facilitators grew to nearly 600,
with training programs
throughout the US, as well as in
the UK, Australia and Belgium.
Key alliances were formed with
organizations such as the
Transformational Leadership
Council, Institute for Noetic
Sciences, CodePink, the Ella
Baker Center, and PartnerShift
Alliance.
Our travel program had a
breakthrough year with 7 groups
and more than 110 travelers
going on a Pachamama journey to
Ecuador, creating significant
numbers of direct partners and
emissaries for the Achuar
people.
Our Work in the South
Pachamama's Ecuadorian operation
Fundación Pachamama, largely
responsible for spearheading the
accomplishments noted above,
celebrated its 10th anniversary
supporting Amazonian indigenous
communities to defend their
territories against extractive
industries and to exercise their
collective rights.
Pachamama played a key role in
negotiating the historic
transfer of the Kapawi Ecolodge
into the Achuar’s full ownership
in 2008.
The Achuar air-service,
Aerotsentsak, is now under the
leadership of the Achuar and is
creating a sustainable source of
revenue while serving the entire
southern Amazon region of
Ecuador.
Pachamama aided the
Confederation of Indigenous
Nationalities of the Ecuadorian
Amazon (CONFENIAE) in developing
policy proposals for its
indigenous constituents and
their territories to be
incorporated into the new
Ecuadorian Constitution.
Pachamama participated in
developing Plan Verde (Green
Plan) as a vital part of
Ecuador's national planning,
providing an alternative
development model that promotes
cultural and biological
diversity and establishes an
indefinite moratorium on oil
development in the southern
Amazonian region.
Goals for 2008:
In 2008 The Pachamama Alliance
will build on these
accomplishments through
expanding our Awakening the
Dreamer Symposium program and
deepening our work with the
Achuar in Ecuador. We have just
completed our annual planning
session for 2008, and we would
like to share some of the
exciting goals that have emerged
from our planning process:
Goals In the North:
Completion and rollout of the
video-enhanced version of the
Awakening the Dreamer, Changing
the Dream Symposium. This
combines the power of video with
the presence and passion of a
live facilitator, creating a
Symposium experience that can
reliably and rapidly reach
millions of people, inspiring
them to take the actions that
will “change the dream” of the
modern world.
International expansion of the
Symposium including training
international facilitators, and
supporting the translation of
the Symposium into Spanish and
Mandarin.
Increase our partnership
alliances with organizations of
like mission and purpose, making
the Symposium available and
customized for each
organization’s constituencies.
Some of these organizations
include: Code Pink, Unity
Churches, and the Ella Baker
Center for Human Rights.
Develop a meta-alliance network
that supports, connects and
enhances the scope and reach of
all organizations working toward
an environmentally sustainable,
spiritually fulfilling and
socially just presence on the
planet.
These partnerships include:
WiserEarth.org, creating an
internet platform for social
change organizations worldwide
to connect and communicate.
Transformational Leadership
Council, an organization
consisting of internationally
known speakers in the field of
transformation and human
development with some
constituencies of over 10,000
people per speaker/teacher.
Provide clear pathways to
participation for Symposium
attendees to create solutions
and take action in their own
lives and in their communities.
We seek to provide attendees
with actionable pathways for
post-Symposium involvement,
without directly prescribing
which actions to take.
Goals In the South:
Support
ownership and management of the
Kapawi Lodge by the Achuar
Federation. Develop a plan to
increase visitors and revenue to
Kapawi Lodge to ensure its
long-term success; The Kapawi
Lodge provides a strong economic
alternative to oil development
for the region.
Purchase an airplane for the
Achuar-owned aviation service,
Aerotsentsak. Continue providing
access to training, including
licensing programs for pilots
and radio controllers within the
Achuar Federation.
Continue supporting the
development and implementation
of Plan Verde (Green Plan) in
Ecuador.
Research and develop concrete
input for the new Ecuadorian
constitution currently being
drafted. Our goal is to imbue
language into the constitution
that will ensure the
preservation of rainforest land
and the cultures of the people
on this land.
Everything You Need To Know
About Pachamama Is Here
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