About Us

The National Centre for Human Ecology is a grass-roots organization founded in 1995 by Bettina Giller, a social worker with an extensive background in children with special needs. After nearly a decade of traveling the area, Bettina gave in to the dream of abandoning the capital city and making the village her new home.

CENACEH is a small organization supported by nearly 50 members. It is overseen by 5 trustees who ensure that our efforts always remain in line with our vision. The Venezuelan charity, registered in the state of Bolivar has received the support of corporations such as Meyer pharmaceutical laboratory, the German Embassy and the Local Council. It is thanks to the continuous and generous donations of a small circle of friends and volunteers as far afield as Caracas, the United States, Germany and The United Kingdom that our dreams are made possible.

Federico Giller (son of Bettina), was appointed CENACEH's Executive Director in October 2004. He has a degree in Human Ecology from College of the Atlantic, Maine, USA. And was a doctoral research member at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, England. He has been involved in conservation, research and education projects in 5 countries around the world involving half a dozen different ethnic groups. He is the recipient of numerous awards by institutions like the National Geographic Society, Royal Geographical Society of London, British Council, and the American Museum of Natural History.

For over a decade, CENACEH has been helping children and families in need. Our commitment is to ensure that the rights of these communities are upheld, their traditional ways are not forgotten, and that members of the community learn to adapt their ways to survive the changes brought about by an overwhelming market economy. This is a challenge worthy of our attention, worthy of our life's work. We only hope you understand the narture of it, and it touches you personally knowing fully well that these children - like your own children or those of your friends and families - deserve the best chance we can offer them.

"It is against a background of heavy-handed bureaucracy of the military, abusive and illegal mining companies, poor provision and inconsistency of social services that we started our efforts eleven years ago.. Our intention then and today remains the same: - to do our best for the children we work with, and help them create a better future while upholding their traditional and rich cultural legacy."

- Bettina

Drawing together children’s ideas and our own perspective, we are advocating new ways of thinking and working with indigenous families.

An overview of the situation of the children reveals several troubling trends:

• A high proportion living in dire poverty
• A high proportion not attending school, with a high incidence of teenage pregnancy
• Lack of effective information about national services
• Distrust of mainstream services
• Living in a twilight zone between two cultures, confronting specific issues that have little or no relevance to the dominant culture.

We ensure that all of our activities help to develop self-esteem among indigenous children, helping them to explore together how they can learn to thrive on the fact that the market economy is irreversibly eroding their traditional lifestyle closely interwoven with natural processes.

Because of our small size, we've kept overhead to a minimum, and are able to devote all of our proceeds directly to our field programs. It is in this respect that we request your personal support. Our intent is to keep CENACEH small, focused, yet conducting meaningful work that makes a lasting impact.