Ongoing Project: The Hummingbird House
Objectives of the Project
The Chirimoto-Amazon project: The Hummingbird House; is a civil organization created with the purpose of working toward a reorganization of the Chirimotan community. The goal of these activities is to promote the harmonious growth of the town, placing particular emphasis in the areas of health, education and the modernization of agriculture. This growth will be based on the recovery of its own traditions and at the same time on the search for resources that will allow for access to new technologies that will enable growth and development with special care given to environmental conservation. In summary, the objective simply stated is: The Hummingbird House hopes to create an “organic” town in the context of a world that is quickly heading toward its own toxic saturation.
Short-term plans and beyond
Communal organization
As part of the revival plan, the community of Chirimoto is in the process of actively organizing different areas of its communal life, such as: public security, public works and the recovery of its traditions. The Hummingbird House is collaborating with the community to reestablish the custom of having an annual collective celebration in the town. This year it will be held from July 26 to 28, at which time the Hummingbird House will be inaugurated, and for this reason the theme for the festivities is “The Renaissance of Chirimoto.” According to Chirimotan tradition, the genuine reason and rallying point for such celebrations had not only been for rejoicing and creating camaraderie, but also to discuss the rights and duties of all of Chirimoto’s citizens, emphasizing their communal responsibilities in daily life, and their impact on the well-being of the town and its people.
Construction of the Cultural Center
Currently a large, two-story building is being constructed, which is destined to operate as the Cultural Center of the town. The building will have, amongst other things, a:
- library and art room
- pharmacy
- classrooms to give advanced training courses in the areas of health, nutrition, agriculture, environment and general education.
Health
In view of the deterioration of the health of many members of the community, one of the short term activities which has been planned is the visit of a team of doctors, whose medical campaign will focus on the areas of nutrition, general medicine, dentistry, gastroenterology, gynecology and psychology.
Agriculture
Promotion of the systematized cultivation of Sacha Inchi (also known as Inca Inchi) as an organic and economically productive nutritional resource of the area. This plant that grows spontaneously in territories of Chirimoto and throughout the Department of Amazonas, as well as in other parts of the Peru’s tropical forests, has a high unsaturated fat content with large amounts of the Omega-3 fatty acid. It has been used for thousands of years by the natives of these regions and was recently re-discovered by western scientists. More information can be found on the Web Page and in Appendix 1.Education and culture
The implementation of seminars for the conservation of literary oral tradition and other activities of artistic and educational character: story telling, writing, reading, poetry, painting, theater, photography and music.Environment
- Construction of a zoo aimed at conserving species native to the zone, particularly those that are in danger of distinction, as is the case of the scissor-tailed Hummingbird.
- Cultivation of tropical medicinal plants.
- Incorporation into the reforestation and environmental protection projects that are being implemented in the Departments of San Martín and Amazonas in order to maintain and protect the biodiversity of the tropical forests as well as the tributaries that lead to the Amazon River, which are currently undergoing serious changes that produce a decrease in their volume, with repercussions that affect one of the largest fresh water reserves on the planet.
