A few months ago, women of the community Nuevo Mundo told us that the Amazon River’s water levels had fallen. This happens every year, but this time, it was more dramatic. Now, their nearest water source was several kilometers away.
Community leaders met and arrived at a solution: each family could take one bucket of water per day from the local fish farm. (This fish farm, or piscigranja, was built in collaboration with Minga several years ago.) Fortunately, this was enough to ease the burden for families in Nuevo Mundo.
Our partner communities are reporting more and more climate-related challenges like this. In recent months, they have reported:
- Trouble raising crops where they used to have a fruitful harvest
- Smaller and fewer fish where there used to be big, more abundant fish
- Hotter temperatures, more mosquitos, and higher humidity
- More occurrences of heat stroke and heat-related illness
Despite all these challenges, they do not give up.
When faced with heat stroke, they adapt their schedules—sometimes getting up at 3a.m—to avoid the sun.
When faced with fewer fish, they build fish farms.
They plant trees. They work together. They care for their environment, and they teach their children how to do so, too.
How is Minga supporting them in these efforts?
To protect their natural resources and preserve their way of life, these communities see reforestation, biodiversity agriculture, and education as crucial steps.
We support them in achieving those goals through:
- Implementation of projects that promote biodiversity, landscape management, and forest and land health, while enabling families to generate income and learn business skills
- Environmental training for women and youth, including agroforestry workshops and science classes taught outdoors
- Providing role models such as women in science to inspire indigenous youth, especially girls, to pursue careers in STEM such as ecology and forestry engineering
- Helping create circumstances in which people are free to dream about and plan for the future rather than fight for daily survival
Today, there is the blossoming of awareness, passion and commitment for many people, especially youth, living in the Amazon. Care for their natural resources has always been part of their lifestyle, culture, and daily life, and Minga’s initiatives are designed to support and amplify that care.
Thanks to their hard work and resilience, these communities have achieved greater physical security, economic prosperity, and climate resilience—which means that they and their children can use their creativity, intelligence and passion to achieve their dreams, care for the world around them, and work for a bright, safe, and joyful future.
To help us support these communities in their work of becoming more climate resilient, please click the button below, which will lead you to a donation page hosted by our fiscal sponsor.
Thank you for your support of this important work!