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Corazón de ají
The department of Vaupés, in the Colombian Amazon, is one of the regions with the highest levels of malnutrition and malnutrition among children and young people in the country, most of whom are indigenous. National food guidelines are not adapted to the cultures, social organizations or natural resources of the department; health services and health education are not adapted to the territory and are practically non-existent in the dispersed rural communities. For this reason, Sinergias has worked with indigenous organizations and communities to generate institutional, community and family strategies to ensure that indigenous children and the general population can have diets that meet their nutritional needs based on local foods and consistent with their culture and ancestral practices.
The foundation of Cataluña Nous Cims has allowed us to continue working on food sovereignty and nutrition in Vaupés. Hand in hand with indigenous leaders of the municipality of Mitú, we want to contribute to the guarantee of the human right to adequate food for the indigenous children of Vaupés.
For this, with this group of women we have identified three points of action:
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Strengthening leadership skills and empowerment at various levels of indigenous women, advancing in the formation of a network of indigenous women leaders of Vaupés.
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Work in the chagras and crops, strengthening local agri-food and ecosystemic systems. We are exchanging seeds to diversify the chagras and spaces for the transmission of ancestral knowledge about cultivation to new generations.
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Promotion of child-rearing and care guidelines for children, breastfeeding and pregnant women to help prevent prevalent childhood diseases associated with malnutrition.
During 2024 we continued in partnership with the ESE Hospital San Antonio de Mitú to jointly monitor the nutritional status of children under 5 years of age in the area, as well as the delivery of deworming and micronutrient supplementation.
We continued working with a group of 6 women from the communities where we work, who support as advisors of the process working on the empowerment of leaders and their communities, through the strengthening of their own care practices, the exchange of seeds to promote the diversification of the chagras and the reduction of dependence on external products. In addition, local recipes were standardized as part of the process of creating a recipe book focused on the care of children under 5 years of age.
In addition, traditional knowledge and practices were revitalized through the collection and analysis of anthropometric data, food and agriculture systems and support and care networks, exchange of seeds, exchange of knowledge about medicinal plants, standardization of recipes, own research processes and intergenerational and intercultural dialogues, among others.
Now this group of women leaders has been formed under the name Tejedoras del Saber (Weavers of Knowledge) and during 2025 they will continue to strengthen and acquire tools to continue working not only in the areas of food, nutrition, self-care and health of women and children, but they are now acquiring tools for the generation of their own economies, management and development of their own projects.
As part of this process, different educational-communication products have been produced to reinforce the recovery of traditional knowledge about food and self-care and the transmission of this knowledge within the communities. Here you can see some of these materials:
In addition to some audiovisual pieces both of the process in general and the history, preparation and data on some important foods within the region:
Corazón de ají
Corazón de ají
Video Proceso Corazón de Ají AJUSTADO
Receta La Manivara.mp4
