Education Programs

Karapauray Ken has a small school which is attended by less than 2/3 of the children in the area. It only offers education up to the 6th grade. The poor attendance record is product of the ‘practical’ realities of local families - whereby children need to help support the family by assisting in the family plantation - following the traditional Taurepam education where children learn by helping their parents in all food production or work chores. El Pauji’s school has a better attendance record with over 80% of children in the area attending school regularly and offers education up to the 9th grade.

The degree of isolation, 3 or 4 decades of non-education by settlers and illegal miners add up to a very resistant and closed, skeptical local indigenous community. Sending children to school is viewed with skepticism and resisted by many. It is often a challenge to engage with the community in joint efforts towards positive changes – even when it involves directly improving their livelihood. As a response, CENACEH supports the community in the following ways:

School Cafeteria in Karapauray Ken - CENACEH supplied and helped build a school cafeteria with the understanding that students would receive at least one nutritious meal every day. To this day, we've enlisted government support to provide a salary for one of the local mothers to cook the meals, and to obtain the foods - which are purchased in Sta. Elena and complimented by the community's food-growing activities.

Student Scholarships- In response to the request by local students who want to continue their high school education, CENACEH has made arrangements with a remote, but well established boarding school of Wonken. In 2004, CENACEH created it's scholarship program. Scholarships are now available to any indigenous child or young person who wants to finish his/her high school studies. The school is located in the remote community of Wonken – accessible only on foot (a seven day trek) or by airplane.

The school provides accommodation, meals, and school education to indigenous children. Not only does the school provide the children with a complete academic curriculum, it also teaches the children about working the land and animals through it’s own experimental farm. The food at the school is mostly harvested locally, and children and young peoples are taught how to work the farm on a participatory way.

Computer Training - In April of 2005 a government funded 'Infocentre' was inaugurated in El Pauji. The centre provides the community - children and adults alike, with computers and free internet access. CENACEH has trained a group of members to serve as 'caretakers' or facilitators, and have for the past year been able to receive a salary for their work.

At the moment, we are completing phase II of the training program - teaching the facilitators to work directly with the schools to create educational programs for children so they learn to use the tool as an asset to their education. Currently we are working in conjunction with members of the council, and are contemplating the possibility of setting up a multi-lingual web site including Taurepam - their local language, so indigenous members of the community can share their experiences with other communities.

CENACEH recently lobbied in favour of the rural communities to the National Assembly successfully. At present members of the governing body are able to communicate directly with high ranking governement officials to report incidences of abuse, neglect, or deteriorating social and health services. This is marks a huge win in our goal of empowering the local indigenous councils in asking for their rights.

The Youth Leadership Group - In response to the deficient school educational programs, CENACEH has created the opportunity for young people to come together in a safe, dynamic informal and friendly environment that empowers participants to develop:

• A well grounded social and cultural identity – understanding where they come from, and able to appreciate and expand upon their rich cultural heritage.
• A well identified sense of self – who they are as individuals and as contributing young members of a cosmopolitan and culturally varied society.
• A clear direction for their future. Our goal is to empower and give voice to these young persons, by helping them discover what they want for their future.

Alternative Incomes and Bio-Cultural Restoration

The economy in the area is mostly based on mining which is illegal, and highly destructive to the land and the family unit. The government claims that mining for gold and diamonds it will be shut down soon, as the detrimental effects from sedimentation threaten Venezuela's largest hydroelectric dam which provides the energetic requirements for 80% of Venezuela, with surplus energy being sold to Colombia and Brazil. Aside from the numerous illegal and international mining companies working in the area, locals form work groups – mostly with relatives to create medium sized mining camps. The other form of sustent for local families comes from the local ‘conuco’ or clear-cut area where they raise mostly tuberous crops.

Although, there’s no employment to speak of in the traditional sense, heads of families provide – very meager sustent for their family based on the sale or trade of gold and diamonds, and the poor nutritional value of starchy crops raised in the conuco. Children are kept from school because of lack of interest, lack of perceived value, they are sometimes needed for chores around the home or conuco, or simply because the children are not inspired to attend.

In response to these economic challenges, CENACEH has developed programs for mothers of our community. Our programs for alternative sources of income, become self-sustainable providing local families with much needed income to improve their financial situation. As a result, and along with educational programs, we hope to reverse the widespread malnutrition of the children. Our primary aim is to empower mothers to decrease their dependency on illegal mining and clear cutting as the sole sources of income and sustenance.

The Knitting Program - The first program on knitting has showed signs of early success. A group of mothers was taught how to knit clothing accessories using colored fabrics, decorated with seeds collected from the local forest. Articles include headbands, waistbands, belts, bandana's which are being sold to tourists in the area thus adding a little extra income for the family.

Cutting and Sewing Program - In June of 2006 CENACEH started the first phase of a program on cutting and sewing techniques. This program will allow mother's to create clothing articles for their families. Phase II of the program will teach those who remain interested how to manufacture clothing articles for the tourist population, and school uniforms for children of our community and nearby towns, thus creating the first 'all women's' enterprise in the area.

Bio-Cultural Restoration - The Guyana Highlands has suffered the most dramatic and widespread environmental degradation in decades. In direct response, CENACEH supports the work of two local farmers who develop new alternatives for growing food crops sustainably based on permaculture models. At this point, we are researching techniques that are adapted to the extremely acidic nature of our soils and nutrient poor conditions of the area. Our objective is to make these techniques available to families and communities as sustainable and financially viable programs for the production of foods. Our objective is two fold. 1) to provide a richer more nutritional diet to the children and to reduce the dependency of clear-cutting, tilling and burning of the last remnants of forests.