The week of July 12, 2021, Fundación Raíz Ecuador carried out several activities in the Siekopai and Siona territories in the province of Sucumbíos as part of the project «Development of bioenterprises derived from yucca and chontaduro with Siekopai and Siona cultural identity.»
This intervention is part of the identification and valuation of products that support community-participated bioenterprises as part of the aforementioned project.
Below is the first part of the activities carried out during that week.
Meeting with Leaders and UNICO Scholars
On Monday, July 12th, an important meeting took place in the community of San Pablo de Katetsiaya between the scholars of the UNICO program and Elías Piaguaje, president of the Organization Representing the Siekopai Nationality in Ecuador (NASEPAI). During this meeting, the framework agreement between Fundación Raíz Ecuador and NASEPAI, developed in the context of the Bioenterprise project to support collaborative work between these two entities, was reviewed.
Elías Piaguaje committed to providing suggestions to Raíz for a final version of the document that could be signed in the coming weeks. The meeting also discussed relevant project issues as well as issues related to the current situation in Siekopai territory due to invasions of their ancestral lands.
Workshop on Work Mechanisms in Siekoya Remolino
On Tuesday, July 13th, a one-hour boat trip was taken along the Aguarico River from San Pablo to the Siekoya Remolino community to provide a workshop for women representatives from the five Siekopai communities participating in the project: San Pablo, Wai’ya, Bellavista, Sewuaya, and Siekoya Remolino. The project aims to rotate the host communities for workshops, so Siekoya Remolino was chosen as the venue since Wai’ya hosted the last workshop.
At least 32 women participated in the activities. The women were divided into four groups, each responsible for presenting, in their language as well as in Spanish, different aspects of their culture related to the production of typical foods and Bioenterprises.
Thus, group 1 presented on ancestral cultivation techniques; group 2 on traditional preparations; group 3 on product standardization, and group 4 on dissemination and commercialization techniques.
Emilio Pallares, representing Raíz, followed up with a presentation considering the points raised by the groups of women. He discussed the working mechanisms within this project, such as family-level production, the collection system, and consignment sales. He also spoke about the benefit of equipping their kitchens to ensure optimal production. This presentation also included general information about the project, as some of the women present had not participated in the previously offered socialization workshops.
The workshop concluded with a tasting of traditional food, which included native fish sourced from pisciculture initiatives led by Siekopai members. After the workshop, visits were made to the community and family farms of Siekoya Remolino. Additionally, agreements were signed with representatives of the women’s associations of Bellavista and Siekoya Remolino.
The women also engaged in sports activities.
