Dear Cofan Survival Fund Supporters,
Hello, dear supporters. It’s been months since we at the Cofan Survival Fund (CSF) have sent an update. And that’s partially because we’ve been so busy! We’ve been working nonstop: helping Cofan people battle illegal gold miners, protecting Cofan land rights in court, enrolling Cofan families in healthcare and eldercare programs, managing community-conservation projects, and convincing the Ecuadorian state to put park-guard positions and carbon-sequestration revenues in the hands of Cofan people.
Some very sad news has also diverted our attention. At least two Cofan elders have died since we last wrote. In addition, a Cofan leader in the community of Dureno—Eduardo Mendua—was killed in February. His death was part of the Cofan’s long struggle to survive the horrors of oil extraction. We knew Eduardo well. We’re monitoring the situation closely and ready to help in any way we can.
Thinking about the recent tragedies has made us realize that everything we do could disappear overnight if we don’t have a new generation prepared to take control. Our Cofan Higher Education Project, which helps Cofan students obtain undergraduate and graduate degrees, is one way to ensure our long-term stability. We also help younger Cofan students acquire world-class educations in Quito, Ecuador’s capital. But not all Cofan children can be part of these programs. We don’t have enough resources to pay their way. Additionally, many Cofan children don’t want to live away from their families and communities for years on end.
Cultural Transmission Project
To meet the needs of these students, we’ve begun a new effort: the Cultural Transmission Project (CTP). With generous support from Chicago’s First Analysis Institute, a team of three Cofan women is combining Cofan and Western knowledge to create high-quality, primary-school curricula that will prepare Cofan children to negotiate a rapidly changing world while maintaining their identity and culture.
The women directing the CTP are perfectly positioned. Amelia Quenamá is an elder born and raised in traditional Cofan ways. Gissela Yumbo graduated through our Cofan Higher Education Project with a degree in engineering and is a shining example of how capable Cofan students are when given a chance. And Emmy Borman has substantial teaching experience and an MA in early-childhood education. Working alongside them is Raúl Queta—another graduate of our Cofan Higher Education Project—who currently works for Ecuador’s Ministry of Education. Raúl is ready to help these women make sure their curricula receive official approval to be taught in community schools.
The CTP team is dedicated to truly bicultural education. Its members are interviewing Cofan people to determine what it means to be Cofan yet is in danger of being lost, including language, ecological knowledge, traditional medicine, handicraft production, subsistence practices, and Cofan foodways. With the data they collect, the CTP team is developing course modules and lesson plans. Cofan children can learn geometry as they produce palm-fiber thread and weave it into the intricate patterns of bags and hammocks. They can learn biology and ecology as they master Cofan hunting and fishing techniques. And they can learn botany and chemistry as they prepare dozens of Cofan plant medicines.
The idea is simple yet powerful: the right educational program can ensure the continuity of Cofan culture while preparing forest-dwelling students to handle a new world. Many will obtain high-school degrees and become valuable members of their communities. Others will move on to college to learn new languages and specialized skills, eventually becoming globally capable leaders. We hope the most dedicated follow the lead of Cofan students Hugo and Sadie Lucitante, who are now earning PhD’s in anthropology with me at the University of Texas at San Antonio. They are already preparing to manage a research and conservation organization allied with the CSF.
Despite the CTP’s incredible progress, it needs more resources—time, personnel, equipment, and financing—to reach its potential. Amelia, Gissela, and Emmy are collecting a tremendous amount of data in the form of audio interviews, video recordings, written notes, photographs, and pedagogical materials. They need to organize it in an easily accessible database, which will require additional computers, expensive software, and other equipment.
Ecuador’s Ministry of Education has always acknowledged the importance of bilingual and bicultural education. But the materials it produces are insufficient to meet Cofan needs. It’s up to the CSF to take on a responsibility that no one else can handle. The CTP’s work will never end: culture and circumstances change, and education must change along with them. But we hope that in the next few years, we’ll have a model that can aid Indigenous Peoples the world over.
Serving the World
As the CSF constantly stresses, the Cofan aren’t doing this work just for themselves, they’re doing it for all of us. Protecting their forests will maintain essential biodiversity and facilitate climate-change-mitigation strategies for everyone. The success of the CTP will help other Indigenous Peoples use schooling to assure their survival and protect their own lands.
To make sure the CTP and all CSF projects succeed, we need your aid. 2022 was one of our best fundraising years to date. Yet we still aren’t halfway to our goal of securing $250,000 a year to cover our core personnel and missions. Though it sounds substantial, that sum amounts to protecting each acre of the Cofán homeland for only $.25 a year. Few other organizations work as efficiently as we do.
Donating $100 or $1,000 a month is a highly effective way to secure the future of the earth and its biological and cultural diversity. Despite its successes, the CSF operates on a shoestring budget that is anything but stable. Our U.S.-based fundraising and communication team works on an all-volunteer basis. We wish we had the money to hire a full-time director, development coordinator, and communications team, but we don’t. Instead, every dime the CSF gets goes directly to Ecuador and the Cofan, who know exactly what to do with it.
You can help the Cofan protect their culture, health, and territory--and our own future--by contributing to the CSF online by clicking the “donate” button below or going to our website: www.cofan.org. Or you can mail a check to: Cofan Survival Fund, 53 Washington Boulevard, Oak Park, IL 60302. Another way to give, if you shop at amazon.com, is to go to smile.amazon.com and select the Cofan Survival Fund as your designated charity. Then, Amazon will donate 0.5% of the price of every one of your purchases to the CSF.
If you’d like to discuss the possibility of making a substantial commitment, feel free to contact me directly at michael.cepek@utsa.edu. I’m always happy to hear from our supporters and tell them why I’ve made the choice to donate so much of my own time and money to the CSF.
Finally, I wanted to share one more piece of good news: my partnership with the Cofan Nation recently helped me win a Guggenheim Fellowship. A Guggenheim is a prestigious award for individuals working across the arts and sciences. In my case, it’s also a tremendous recognition of the importance of the Cofan struggle. With the announcement of the new Guggenheim Fellows, many individuals will see the words “Cofan” and “Cofan Survival Fund” for the first time. We hope the news will gain us more supporters; we also hope it will increase your own confidence in how much the Cofan and the CSF mean to the world.
Sincerely,
Michael L. Cepek, CSF President
CSF is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, and donations are tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law. For gifts of $250 and larger, you will receive a receipt for tax purposes.