PUMPED UP FOR PEACE at Cyberschoolbus
A Project to Educate and Mobilize Youth on Indigenous Issues
Although the Amazon rainforest is one of the most abundant sources of freshwater in the world, indigenous communities living in this protected region are facing difficult challenges resulting from the contamination of their water supply.
The United Nations Global Teaching and Learning Project is drawing attention to this issue through a new project called Pumped Up for Peace, available on the United Nations Cyberschoolbus educational web site. Schools around the world are getting involved to help the native community of Santa Rosa de Huacaria by raising funds needed for them to build a natural filtration system using rocks and sand and a hygiene center with showers and bathrooms. In the process, the students are learning about indigenous knowledge and traditions, why past programmes sponsored by the government and NGOs failed and what actions native communities are taking today to improve the quality of their environment.
In the same region of Peru, the UN project is working with an NGO, Bridges to Understanding, that is training indigenous youth how to use multimedia technologies. These youth will be working with mentors to make a short movie about changes occuring in their community. When completed, the movie will be broadcast on Cyberschoolbus for others to see.
These are but two recent examples of ways the United Nations are connecting indigenous peoples to the world-at-large to raise awareness about issues of importance to their communities.
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The native community of Santa Rosa de Huacaria lies between the lowland
Amazon tropical rain forest and the cloud forests of the Andean foothills. It is an eight-hour drive from the city of Cuzco, Peru.
Approximately 150 people live in Huacaria, 60 of them children. The population includes three indigenous groups–Matsigenka, Wachipaeri, and Quechua–who speak different languages and maintain different cultural practices. |
The United Nations Cyberschoolbus was created in 1996 to develop m a terials for schools on the UN, the principles upon which it was founded and its achievements. It provides information and sponsors projects on a wide range of issues including the rights of indigenous peoples.
http://www.cyberschoolbus.un.org |
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Indigenous Peoples Curriculum at Cyberschoolbus
“Humankind has not
woven the web of life. We are but one thread within it. Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves. All things are bound together. All things connect.”
Chief Seattle. |
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In celebration of the International Day of the World’s Indigenous People, the United Nations Cyberschoolbus educational web site created a series of web pages on indigenous peoples. This material offers schools around the world an introduction to indigenous cultures, develops an appreciation of each unique culture, and explores human rights issues dealing with autonomy, self-determination and cultural identity.
Over the next year the United Nations Cyberschoolbus will be working closely with an advisory group established by the Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues to develop new educational resources and projects for indigenous children and youth, educators and schools around the world.
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"We the indigenous peoples walk to the future in the footprints of our
ancestors. From the smallest to the largest living being, from the four directions, from the air, the land and the mountains, the creator has placed us, the indigenous peoples upon our mother the earth."
Indigenous Peoples Earth Charter (1992) |
Published by the United Nations Department of Public Information — DPI/2335C — May 2004
Developed for the internet by the UN Website Section, Department of Public Information © United Nations 2004
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