Indigenous Youth Leading the Amazon's Future

Dear Friends and Supporters,

Over the past months, we have continued walking alongside Indigenous students as they navigate their studies, face challenges, and take steps toward becoming the leaders the Amazon needs. Your support allows us to stay close to their processes, listening, advising, and responding to what they need at each stage of their lives.

One new initiative that brought us great satisfaction was accompanying a group of Indigenous youth through the application process for a scholarship call. We provided hands-on support to help students clarify their ideas, strengthen their proposals, and better understand how funded projects work. As a result of this process, José, an Awajún graduate in Environmental Engineering, advanced to the next stage of the selection process with a proposal focused on environmental conservation. We are excited to continue accompanying him and to see how this opportunity unfolds.

In recent months, we reconnected with Sacha Cine, an ally we have worked with in the past exploring themes of identity and interculturality through audiovisual creation. Over seven sessions, a group of students immersed themselves in the foundations of audiovisual storytelling, working collectively to develop short videos grounded in their own perspectives and experiences. This process strengthened their confidence, creativity, and capacity to communicate ideas connected to buen vivir and their role in promoting it.

The videos created through this process were later presented at the forum “Analysis and Dialogue on Higher Education for Indigenous Youth in Loreto,” which we organized on November 14 in the city of Iquitos. The event brought together Indigenous students, universities, government institutions, Indigenous territorial governments, and allied organizations to reflect on access to higher education, the challenges students face, and the need for more relevant and intercultural educational pathways. The forum concluded with a Final Declaration, in which participating institutions committed to working together to strengthen intercultural higher education for Indigenous youth in the region.

These moments - supporting proposals, creating videos, opening spaces for dialogue - may seem small on their own. But together, they form the foundation that allows Indigenous students to strengthen their voices, expand their opportunities, and shape their own paths forward. We are grateful to you for being part of this process and for making this work possible.

With gratitude,

The Chaikuni Team