[JUNGLE DRUMS] The Community Communication Training Programme comes to an end

This training programme was for strengthening COICA’s internal knowledge management strategy and external communication, including young people as leaders. It was the framework for «Climate Change and the Amazon», and provided 120 hours of training over six months.

The closing ceremony of the Community Training Programme in Communication and Leadership for Amazonian Youth was held on 16 December. The programme succeeded in strengthening the capacities of the young Amazonian participants in the field of communication, providing them with tools that will enable them to formulate, develop, evaluate and manage communication products and services for the benefit of their community.

Tadea Casique, COICA’s education, science and technology coordinator, said that the training programme was a milestone for COICA’s on-line school, as it is the first on-line training programme with a cross-cultural approach, which integrates methodologies and uses technology for distance-learning classes, and which has had the active and committed participation of young people.

Tadea Casique, COICA’s education, science and technology coordinator -COICA

She stressed that “It is a key strategy for all our actions in defence of our indigenous and human rights that our autonomy and self-determination be permanently accompanied by comprehensive, digital, creative and innovative communication tools and strategies, which strengthen our demands as indigenous peoples, but above all, broadcast our proposals and solutions to the region and throughout the world».

Patricia Camacho, the project coordinator, went on to underline that “The Jungle Drums programme has strengthened the communication skills of young men and women from the Amazon, enabling them to express their ideas, to speak out, to go out into the world and to coordinate with COICA, working to establish the voices of this region across the world».

Patricia Camacho, the project coordinator

Martin Jaggi, Head of SDC in Peru and the Andean region at the Swiss Embassy in Lima, spoke next. He stressed the importance of working with young people, particularly with young people in the Amazon in the defence of their territory and their rights. “The Amazon is an essential heritage of humanity, and we trust that the new generations, who are its present and future, will take up the baton to continue defending this heritage in alliance with progressives from civil society, science and the business sector».

Martin Jaggi, Head of SDC in Peru and the Andean region at the Swiss Embassy in Lima

He went on to say: “SDC would like to give special recognition to the 43 young people who are concluding this communication programme today, after overcoming obstacles of distance, pandemics and even the cultural richness of the Amazon’s various languages». He added: «We also hope that they will invite the new generations to continue participating in training and encourage dialogue with grassroots organisation leaders, in order to meet the expectations and needs of the new generation and the indigenous population as a whole».”

On closing, he called on other bilateral and multilateral cooperation agencies to continue accompanying COICA in the future with programmes and innovative proposals for finding solutions to the great challenges of the Amazon.

Gregorio Díaz Mirabal, COICA’s general coordinator, said: “… we are grateful for having realised this dream, this wish of the indigenous peoples, to have a tool, an instrument that allows us to face the complexity of the Western world, (…) so different from the reality of our land».

Gregorio Díaz Mirabal, COICA’s general coordinator

He thanked all those who had made the programme possible for their support, highlighting the importance of its cross-cultural nature. «The “Jungle Drums” communication training programme is a cross-cultural creation, it is a collective creation (…); in addition to COICA, Funder and SDC, it is the students, the graduates who are at the forefront, those who today will receive the prize for their efforts (…). But remember: this will not be valid unless we put this knowledge into practice, make it a reality in our territory, defend the Amazon, defend our identity, and make the dreams we have had during this training process come true…”

Next on the programme came the symbolic presentation of certificates to the 43 young participants from Colombia, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Brazil, Suriname and French Guiana. Share the experience in the video below.

Communications competition
The Amazon and Climate Change

The competition was popular. It had three categories: journalism, photojournalism and video. The jury was composed of Connie Espinoza and Nora Sánchez from HIVOS, Sofía Bustamante from WWF Ecuador, and Sarah Foster from Jungle Drums.

We would like to congratulate all those who took part in the competition. Below are the names and entries of the winners in each category.

Journalism

  • First prize: Ismael Luna
  • Second prize: Beisy Arana and Ruth Salazar
  • Third prize: Liseth Shiguango

Photo-journalism

  • First prize: Miguel Ángel Rojas
  • Second prize: Judy Payaguaje
  • Third prize: Diego Argenis Sánchez

Video

©Chris Elliman
  • First prize: Chris Elliman
  • Second prize: Nadino Calapucha
  • Third prize: María Arana

Related article:
[Tambores de la Selva. “Defendiendo la Amazonía”] Inauguración de la Escuela Virtual COICA, en el marco del Programa de Formación en Comunicación Comunitaria (leer)
[Seminario online Tambores de la Selva] La Amazonía y el Cambio Climático (leer)

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