Current News
Fish Harvest at Las Malvinas Garden August 2010
At the end of July, students at Las Malvinas School in Iquitos carried out the first of three fish harvests for the season. The creation and development of this small fish farm in the middle of the city has been a long time in coming, so everyone was delighted to finally see the fruits of their labor. International Expeditions is the donor for this fish farm and the Las Malvinas Garden. Friends of Amazon Amigos have also contributed in a variety of ways, particularly helping with fish food for the year. During the harvest the students learned a great deal. All the fish were accounted for and about 100 were measured and weighed for a report on average size and weight. Profits from fish sales will go to pay for fish food for next year’s class. The students are learning the value of hard work, investment, sales and marketing, bookkeeping, profits, and reinvestment. And everyone had a very good time.
U.S. Students Join Villagers to Work on Projects July 2010
June should be the end of school--right? For most it is, but for a few, school's not out yet. During June and July, Explorama and CONAPAC hosted 13 middle and high school student groups doing a wide variety of projects. They have built water treatment plants, helped build children's playgrounds, painted houses and schools, planted palm and camu camu fruit trees, built benches, dug trenches and laid pipes for water plants, poured cement and made sidewalks, created art projects and painted community murals. Wow! What a lot of work! But it was fun, too. We're happy to have them and the cross-cultural activities enriched their travel experience.
Assessing Water Systems June 2010
Once again our grad students from the University of Colorado are here for more work on clean water and sanitation systems. Christie Chatterley, David Sparkman, Cole Sigmon, and Jeff Walters will be here for the month of June. Along with James Pasmiño (our new CONAPAC staff member) and local university students from Iquitos, they will be visiting all our communities which currently have water plants. If time allows, they will stop by other communities that have expressed an interest in clean water systems. These students will be providing valuable feedback to CONAPAC about usage rates, ease of access, attitudes, barriers to usage, health status, financial limitations, etc. We look forward to their observations and recommendations. This information will be shared with our donors, both large and small, as we move forward in our attempt to provide clean water systems to all communities in our Adopt-A-School program. We are on track to have 16 water plants built this year. However, there are 73-75 communities in our program. We've done a lot, but have a long way to go. Our collaboration with the University of Colorado has been a real bonus for our long-term goals and we hope to continue the partnership next year and beyond!
New CONAPAC Staff Member April 2010
Probably the biggest challenge CONAPAC has, besides the great travel distances to travel to do our work, is the lack of adequate manpower. With International Expeditions’ financial support, we were positioned this year to hire additional staff. We are delighted to introduce James Pasmiño Escobedo, an accredited school teacher who has had extensive experience in the rainforest. He taught for seven years and then worked in the Adopt-A-School rainforest community of Nuñez Cocha the last four years as its principal. He will be working in the jungle five days a week, using Marcos’s old boat to visit villages. A rotation schedule will be worked out so that each village school and various sustainable projects will be visited on a regular basis. We expect James to be able to answer questions, find solutions and encourage cooperation among community authorities, residents, teachers, parents and students. James has been contracted to work from April through December of 2010. Everyone at CONAPAC is excited about the possibilities and experience James will bring to the table. Improving our project oversight, supporting and retaining teachers, plus assisting with service projects, are just a few of the things we hope to achieve with this added CONAPAC staff member.
Great gifts from our partners! February 2010
Very soon we will begin our 17th year of providing books and school supplies to children and teachers who live along the Amazon and Napo Rivers. Unfortunately, this year our donor units are down substantially. But GREAT NEWS! International Expeditions and the Detroit Zoological Society have stepped up to fill the void. New textbooks and teacher workshops will once again be provided due to their generosity. Thank you IE and DZS for coming to the rescue. You’re the best!!
Once again, the SAGA Foundation has provided a substantial grant to CONAPAC for the construction of water treatment plants. Last year they helped us build three water plants and provided money for seven water workshops. This year, they have made a donation large enough to build four new water plants, provide six workshops and extra money for gasoline and salaries. They are an excellent and on-going donor-partner working to improve the lives of those living along the Amazon and Napo Rivers.
