Youth Empowerment and Environmental Education

‍Led by Project Coordinator Geovanny Siquiha, himself a member of Sani Isla and a lifelong advocate for educational opportunities for young people in the Amazon, we are supporting Sani Isla’s youth by expanding access to key resources and technologies like internet access, projectors, and books for the community’s first library, and through the establishment of Sani Isla’s new Youth Association: Mushuk Ñanpitak Pascachik Wanrakuna (Kichwa for “youth who open new paths”).

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This unique and exciting youth project brings together young people from Sani Isla to participate in leadership and skills training and other opportunities to learn and travel and to create their own conservation and empowerment projects. This project supports young people’s leadership and desire to organize themselves to expand their own opportunities and, as the name says, create new paths and open new doors for young people in their community. As the organization grows, they are creating their own projects that support community economic security, opportunity, and forest protection such as their own sustainable agriculture and aquaculture projects, and making connections with other youth organizations in the Amazon and in Ecuador. 

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We coordinate environmental events and workshops to consistently emphasize conservation knowledge and skills and motivate young people to become leaders in conservation of their forest, empowering the next generation to continue to fight to keep Sani Isla’s rich, diverse forest standing.

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• Teachers, students, and directors at two schools in Sani Isla, Silverio Tapuy and Lorenzo de Garaicoa
• MUSHUK ÑANPITAK PASCACHIK WANRAKUNA Youth Association of Sani Isla 

Youth empowerment initiatives

• Building Youth Empowerment Center with MUSHUK ÑANPITAK PASCACHIK WANRAKUNA Youth Association for youth to meet, plan projects, hold workshops and training activities, host visitors and exchange events with other community youth groups
• Youth are researching and collecting information to create a book about the history of Sani Isla’s resistance to oil companies

School resources

• Supporting Sani Isla’s schools with materials like internet access
• Supporting the building of the community's first library; securing other key resources like internet access, laptops, projectors, and books for the community’s two schools

Educational programs

• Community environmental education events to celebrate World Rainforest Day, New Years, etc. 
• Organizing education and knowledge-exchange activities for young people in Sani Isla on topics from community ecotourism to conservation, biodiversity, and leadership, as well as expanding opportunities for them to travel outside of the community

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