The SIEKONOMI are the colorful Siekopai women who live in Siekopai territory in the province of Sucumbíos in the Ecuadorian Amazon and also on the Amazonian side of Peru. SIEKONOMI is the entrepreneurship of the Siekopai women who are members of the ASOPROASIENW Association. In October, they participated in two fairs in Quito where they showcased their ancestral Amazonian products such as Neapia (black pepper), casabe (yuca), fariña, and chontaduro.
The first fair was the ‘Community Bioentrepreneurship’ on October 5 and 6 at the Flacso Ecuador headquarters in Quito. It was organized by the Small Grants Program of Ecuador, with the support of CIESPAL, Flacso Ecuador, and Fundación Codespa as part of the Intercultural Meeting ‘Resilience and community responses to the COVID-19 pandemic’.
The second fair was on October 13 at the esplanade of the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock in Quito. The Siekonomi exhibited and sold their products at the ‘I Prefer’ fair throughout the day.
«Raíz Ecuador Foundation” supports women bio-entrepreneurs from Siekopai and Siona communities as part of the ‘Boosting Bio-entrepreneurship in the Amazon’ project, promoted by Raíz Ecuador Foundation along with other stakeholders.
We thank Alianza Ceibo, Amazon Emergency Fund, the Small Grants Programme of UNDP Ecuador, the Programme for Support to the National System of Protected Areas (PASNAP) of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Ecological Transition of Ecuador, the German Development Bank (KFW), and the German Cooperation Agency (GIZ Ecuador). We also express our gratitude to the organizations that organized the fairs such as CIESPAL, Flacso Ecuador, Fundación Codespa, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock.
