Sapara Birth Centre
Donation protected
Under the threat of environmental degradation due to oil and mineral extraction from parts of the Ecuadorean Amazon jungle, the Sápara people have reached out to allies outside of the jungle to help protect and preserve their land. The mode in which they have chosen to communicate the sacredness of the land and its importance not only to their values and traditions but also to the global family of citizens, is through sharing their extraordinary way of life. This includes sacred knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants, knowledge that they have cultivated and refined through generations of teachings. However, as their lives are firmly integrated into their context in the largest sense (environmentally, spiritually, socially and physically), the Sápara have more to offer. They have maintained a connection to the most fundamental necessity of our species: an understanding of the process of normal birth.
The Sápara peoples have resisted contact with persons and groups from outside of their nation, including missionaries and religious ambassadors, educational programs and incentives and medical care. They have done this to both honor and protect the embodied cultural knowledge they hold. This applies to pregnancy and childbirth, a life process that is integrated into Sápara culture by women in the community who have been apprenticed into supporting the process of birth by their ancestors. Although the territory is remote by any Western metrics, travel from the community to the nearest hospital by both small plane (approximately 30 minutes from the local airstrip when weather and finances permit) and on foot by the Sápara people is possible. The opening of this contact and the ensuing communication with the outside world it has allowed has led to a handful of women choosing to birth outside of the community in recent years. The elder women in the community, however, recognized the slow degradation of spiritual practices around birth and the very fabric of the culture that this might lead to and have discouraged women from leaving unless it is medically necessary. They have created a culture of birth in the community that is safe and held by the sacred practices they convey.
The Sápara women need to be supported in their efforts to protect the culture of birth in their community as a physical act but also the most basic representation of their ties to their land. They have asked for assistance specifically in building a birth centre so women from all the sparsely located communities recognize birth can occur on their land in a physical location. 100% of funds raised through this campaign will be given to the Sápara people through Project Naku, a local initiative based in the community of Llanchamacocha.
Please consider a donation to this cause. For more information contact [email redacted].
The Sápara peoples have resisted contact with persons and groups from outside of their nation, including missionaries and religious ambassadors, educational programs and incentives and medical care. They have done this to both honor and protect the embodied cultural knowledge they hold. This applies to pregnancy and childbirth, a life process that is integrated into Sápara culture by women in the community who have been apprenticed into supporting the process of birth by their ancestors. Although the territory is remote by any Western metrics, travel from the community to the nearest hospital by both small plane (approximately 30 minutes from the local airstrip when weather and finances permit) and on foot by the Sápara people is possible. The opening of this contact and the ensuing communication with the outside world it has allowed has led to a handful of women choosing to birth outside of the community in recent years. The elder women in the community, however, recognized the slow degradation of spiritual practices around birth and the very fabric of the culture that this might lead to and have discouraged women from leaving unless it is medically necessary. They have created a culture of birth in the community that is safe and held by the sacred practices they convey.
The Sápara women need to be supported in their efforts to protect the culture of birth in their community as a physical act but also the most basic representation of their ties to their land. They have asked for assistance specifically in building a birth centre so women from all the sparsely located communities recognize birth can occur on their land in a physical location. 100% of funds raised through this campaign will be given to the Sápara people through Project Naku, a local initiative based in the community of Llanchamacocha.
Please consider a donation to this cause. For more information contact [email redacted].
Organizer
Jude Kornelsen
Organizer
Salt Spring Island, BC
