For a Guajira without hunger where development has as its center the lives of Wayuu indigenous children.

The La Guajira team has been working in the field for more than ten years in Wayuu communities in the rural area of ​​Manaure, La Guajira. Through a rights-based approach and a comprehensive strategy, we have managed to transform the reality of specific families while we work to find long-term solutions. We currently work with:

26 Wayuu communities

3,148 Wayuu indigenous people from the rural area of ​​Manaure

643 Wayuu families

The work in the communities is divided according to the lines of work of the foundation:

Nutritional monitoring for children under five years of age

Thanks to the support of Manos Unidas, census nutritional monitoring is carried out every 3 months for children under 5 years of age, in order to identify cases of malnutrition that must be referred to the responsible entities or cases of risk of malnutrition that can be treated in the communities.

Fucai provides support in the nutritional recovery of children at risk of malnutrition by supplying food supplements and teaching care with those responsible in the family and the community, since the State programs only contemplate the nutritional recovery of children with Acute Malnutrition, in centers of recovery.

We have managed to keep the indicators of severe acute malnutrition at 0 in the communities where we have incidence. The work is joint with the families and the authorities of the communities. We follow up every four months on all children under five years of age, as well as biweekly follow-up on those who are moderately acutely malnourished or at risk of malnutrition. Through training sessions with the communities, we have designed an action and prevention route to prevent infant mortality from preventable causes.

Monthly delivery of food supplement

Vitameal is a food rich in nutrients, based on rice and lentils, used in vulnerable populations worldwide, to overcome cases of malnutrition in early childhood. It is produced by NUSKIN and donated to Fucai for distribution in Wayuu communities in the Colombian Guajira.

Month after month, the Vitameal bags (each contains 2.5kg of food) are exchanged through a series of agreements that each family agrees to carry out. Some of these agreements are construction or structural maintenance of kitchens, jaguey, goat pens, houses, orchards, among other activities.

We have delivered 114 tons of Vitameal to an average of 700 families in 28 communities. From March 2019 to May 2022.

A comprehensive strategy

The crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic aggravates the situation of extreme poverty in which many Wayuu communities live in the Binational Colombian-Venezuelan Guajira. To the unconstitutional state of affairs declared by the Constitutional Court through Judgment t-302 of 2017 are added in this pandemic, the lack of health infrastructure, the even greater decrease in income from the sale of tissues, fish and sheep meat, the incipient access to water and food and the weak dialogue between the communities and the entities responsible for guaranteeing the fundamental rights of the Wayuu children and their communities.

Water delivery in tank trucks

Most of the Wayuu communities do not have access to potable water and many times not to non-potable water, of the 20 communities only one has real access to the public battery service, so it is of the utmost importance to supply quality and sufficient water. in the communities. Within the framework of the pandemic, we have facilitated the supply of 450,000 liters of water in 45 tanker truck trips to 20 communities, thanks to the joint work between the aqueduct, cleaning and sewage company of the municipality of Manaure AAA, the IPS Anaswayuu, the Alianza Team (Colombian multi-latina leader in the lipid and fat sector) and the company Banyan Tree.

 

Improvement of income for the families of women weavers

Fucai has been working for 3 years together with a group of 90 Wayuu weavers in order to promote and market the fabrics produced by them. During the pandemic era, dissemination is being carried out for the sale of Wayuu fabrics, as well as the active search for new alliances and clients. We have managed to sell unique pieces from the Wayuu collection of fabrics to international private clients.

The international handicraft company Mazonia donated a total of 40 hygiene kits for the women weavers and their families. These kits include soaps and cleaning products to maintain good hygiene to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus.

Citizen Oversight for the implementation of sentence T302 of 2017

One of the tasks of relevant importance is to publicize the Judgment to the communities, as well as the measures that are applied and the current situation. From FUCAI we made the decision to socialize this Judgment in the communities where we work in order to inform the authorities and families of the situation that is going through. From the foundation we firmly believe that the empowerment of communities starts from information and knowledge regarding rights and the use that can be made of it.

We held a second socialization session during the month of December 2021. In it we talked about the progress and news that were believed to be relevant so that the authorities and inhabitants of the communities were aware. The time line prepared by the citizen oversight team was used as a resource, in which it was evident: the schedule established by the Judgment vs. the schedule that had occurred since the Judgment with the real processes and the real times, and finally the total number of deceased children reported in all that time that the actions were taking place by the sentenced entities as well as the constitutional court. The objective was to be able to leave evidence of the number of children who were left on the road and that their lives could have been saved if the actions had been carried out.

In February 2022, our team called 20 community authorities from the rural area of ​​Manaure. This workshop was divided into 4 parts, the same ones pertaining to the rights claimed in Judgment t-302 of 2017 (access to water, access to food, improved access roads and participation). The objective was to review each of the rights and see what were the situations in which each of the communities found themselves.

Tawala Wayuu Festival

We continue working to improve the income of the weavers of the communities. In alliance with the artist Alicia Maria Vallejo and an interdisciplinary team, we are carrying out the Tawala Wayuu Fest event, a social art meeting that will be presented during the month of November in Parque de la 93, Bogotá. With this event we want to show Colombia and the whole world the art of Wayuu women weavers, bringing fabrics of abundance in the midst of a territory of scarcity.

Through the international artistic movement Yarm Bombing we are going to dress 43 trees with fabrics made by 150 weavers from different communities in the rural area of ​​Manaure.

Do you want to be part of this movement? You can donate a dress from a tree by clicking here

We built our 1st community kitchen and dining room

Together with Challenger we designed this recipe for an inclusive and equitable Colombia, we believe that with this work we dignify the educational conditions to cook a happy present and future for all.

Today this dream has already been built and is enjoyed with a Wayuu vision, with the aroma of Guajira tradition; corn, goat, chicken, a cuisine with the flavor of IDENTITY. Designed with a differential approach and materials with a low carbon footprint.

Technical assistance to improve sheep and goat production

Goats are protagonists in multiple aspects of Wayuu life and customs, they are part of their history, symbols, and conflict resolution in the ethnic group. They are so relevant that they have become a type of "currency" for goods and services between different families. When a family has goats, it is more likely that they can guarantee their food, which means that this species is part of the food security discourse in the region.

In alliance with SENA Riohacha headquarters; and including the differential approach of FUCAI, we carried out a theoretical-practical workshop to technify the care, reproduction and breeding of sheep and goats for 27 families dedicated to sheep and goat herding in the rural coastal area of ​​Manaure.

orchards

In communities where it is difficult to talk about food sovereignty, due to desert conditions, in addition to environmental characteristics (climate change), the territory has a significant lack of water. In cases like these, it is necessary first to talk about food security so that in a future with better prospects we can talk about food sovereignty.

Taking advantage of the small rainy seasons in the region, from FUCAI we support the communities with the delivery of seeds typical of the region, with the purpose of involving and promoting the participation of families in their food sovereignty. We find that this is a strategy to avoid generating welfare dynamics in the communities.

We recognized and identified the orchards that exist in 20 rural communities in the middle of Guajira. When delivering the seeds, we advise and accompany them.