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Mallki Wasi - Education for the Amazon guardians
Kosñipata, Peru
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Location:
Kosñipata, Peru
Category:
education
Phase:
design development
Updated:
16 January 2023
The destruction of the Amazon is among the most important issues of recent years. Children still have an innocent connection with nature, which many adults have long since lost. In many years of experience with reforestation, we have realized that the integration of a new education is the basis for change to foster coexistence with nature. So, a new forest school is proposed to bring Kosñipata community a new perspective of education.
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Introduction
The Manu National Park, to which Kosñipata belongs, possesses one of the most important riches in the world in terms of biodiversity. This zone is located between the cloud forest and the lowland forest and has certain regulations for logging and other interventions that, unfortunately, have not been respected.

If we begin to promote and maintain this natural connection with children, the destruction will be less and a new way of seeing the importance of protecting nature can emerge. In many years of experience with reforestation, we have realized that the integration of a new education is the basis for change and now we want to start a new project of a school in the forest that does exactly that: fostering coexistence with nature. An education where we learn from nature and use it without destroying it; to use it and extract from it in a conscious and natural way.

We plan to design the space of the school in a way that is integrated with nature, using materials from the same place: stones, sand, bamboo, etc. We want children to be able to learn about the flora and fauna by working with a vegetable garden, a nursery, with animals, working and using bamboo, etc. We also want to incorporate the youth and, very importantly, the mothers, and maybe make different spaces like a women's house in the future to be able to do work for them as well. The hardest situation in the region involves children, young people and women because there are no spaces or future for them. 

Entrance to Sacha Q'ente site and house

image: Verena Wüstinger | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Impact
There are several social conflicts in Kosñipata’s communities, such as indiscriminate logging, drug addiction, and prostitution of minors, among others. However, this is a place with a lot of potential in terms of biodiversity and the existence of local actors who have been carrying out activities for the sake of local development.

From these actions, the team takes this background of struggle and community organization as a basis for developing a cooperative work for the sake of development and community learning. It is for this reason that an articulating network of pedagogical spaces with, from and for the community is proposed, which in turn will be designed together with the various local actors and built with local materials.

First, it is proposed to develop a seed project, an architectural intervention on a piece of land donated by the community and then, in the medium term, to weave a network of educational supports based on learning modules and communal spaces. The objective is to provide alternatives to current problems. Also, to promote the strengthening of their identity through the learning of their history and cultural richness. It also seeks to give greater presence and importance to the children and youth of the community by building different spaces where they can develop different skills and techniques such as, for example, self-construction with sustainable materials, leading community design workshops, planting various local species, etc., and, In this way, achieving development hand in hand with comprehensive and sustainable education.
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Core team
The contact with the community started with a request for help, urgency and love from Verena Wüstinger, a mother in Kosñipata who was faced with a difficult situation: not being able to count on quality education in one of the inner rural parts of the Peruvian jungle. The temporary solution of taking the children far away to educate them did not convince her because it would not include children of her friends, close workers, neighbors, the family that she was already extending in the jungle, a beautiful place to live, despite its many shortcomings. So she came up with the crazy idea of building a school, still without knowing how or in collaboration with whom, but soon the idea was making sense and the voices of other mothers joined in almost instantly. We listen to them now, and we will try to respond from what we know, adapting the territory and creating spaces for all the learning that the community already has, shares and also forgets, to protect and sow it as they themselves protect the space where they live: Kosñipata.

Now in this project are involved three non-profit organizations: Sacha Q'ente (ancestral nature-based healing), Qoyllur Q'ente (Reforestation) and Learling Landscapes (architectural design); also with 2 village communities that live in the sourroudings of Kosñipata: Patria and Pilcopata. Each of the communities with mothers, chidren, teachers interested in improving the learning system; and also with public schools and public spaces with a lot of potential to intervene.
Core Team. Learning Landscapes, Sacha Q'ente and Kosñipata Community

image: Heiner Vucetich | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Image gallery
Pilcopata School

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Community gathered in the market

image: Heiner Vucetich | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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New school design process

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Children in the market

image: Heiner Vucetich | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Learning Landscapes and Sacha Q'ente community

image: Heiner Vucetich | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Kosñipata landscape

image: Verena Wüstinger | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Classes outside Sacha Q'ente

image: Verena Wüstinger | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Community and volunteers

image: Heiner Vucetich | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Tree of dreams

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Playing with the river

image: Verena Wüstinger | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Map of ideas

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Bridge to Sacha Q'ente

image: Verena Wüstinger | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Mothers in Sacha Q'ente

image: Verena Wüstinger | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Learning in middle of the jungle

image: Verena Wüstinger | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Sacha Q'ente community in the river

image: Verena Wüstinger | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Mother and children in the market

image: Heiner Vucetich | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Boy writing desires for education

image: Heiner Vucetich | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Telling fears and dreams for education

image: Heiner Vucetich | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Boys drawing and talking aboyt education

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Tree of ideas in the night

image: Heiner Vucetich | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Technical drawings
PRtOJECT STAGES. Analysis, pilot, design and construction of the new school

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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IMMERSIVE ATMOSPHERES. Transition in territory and learning spaces

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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COMMUNITY AND TERRITORY PRATICES. Analysis of biodiversity, climate and social practices

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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PLACES OF LEARNING. Visual intervention of learning spaces in Kosñipata

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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LOCATION MAP. Kosñipata principal villages, roads ans rivers

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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SACHA Q’ENTE DISTRIBUTION. Strategies of intervention in territory

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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MODULAR DESIGN. Location of the house intervention and learning-with-nature modules

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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FIRST STAGE, HOUSE INTERVENTION. Project to recycle the infrastructure of a house for a kindergarten use

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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M1 Playground module

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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M2 Learning module

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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M3 Communal module

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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M4 Pond module

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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M5 River module

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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TERRITORY-SCHOOL VISION. Forest school for children in Kosñipata

image: Learning Landscapes | CC-BY-NC-ND_black.png some rights reserved
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Help bring our project to life!

There are no updates yet.

Help bring our project to life!
Where are we now
Educational content has been shared on the importance of reforestation activity and the ecological wealth of the Manu National Park aimed at students and their parents from the communities of the Valley, in coordination with nearby schools, and the Ministry of Education. An association of reforesters has been formed together with the peasants. The planting of more than 100 forest species was carried out, land sanitation and repair of the boundaries to the surroundings. A basic house with potable water has also been implemented with the help of community construction teachers. Sacha Q'ente is adequate for reforestation, now it has to be prepared to be an adequate place for children education.
An indication of our team’s capacity:
10% funding already raised
60% expertise already found
40% materials / equipment already found
50% builders already found
Finance: € 19,630
The implementation of educational spaces, short-term in Sacha Q'ente and long-term in public spaces and schools in another villages; will allow the monitoring of the learning content within the school to be built as well as allow the development of extracurricular activities regarding the conservation and restoration of the ecological zone in collaboration with other nearby schools. as well as the communities. It would also allow the hosting of professors and experts and the invitation of students from other districts to attend classes. Likewise, it would allow training for teaching staff, parents and children in a quality educational program.
  • Office work
30
  • Field work
500
  • dissemination
100
  • Intervention on the land and infrastructure donate
2,000
  • Build learning modules and meeting spaces
8,000
  • Intervention on open spaces for recreation
1,000
  • Urban: a network of educational spaces semi public
5,000
  • Profesional services
2,000
  • Travel expenses
1,000
Skills: Planning & Management, Law & Politics, PR & Marketing, Financial advice, Technique
Currently, we have the benefit of having the community's labor for the construction part and the support of the area's deforestation personnel. However, a specialized team with technical knowledge is required for the design, construction and implementation of the infrastructure. Education and learning: the project requires specialists in alternative education training with knowledge in new pedagogical systems that can be encouraged to live, work and implement in the Kosñipata valley. Construction and implementation: the project would require the support of a team of architects for the construction phase and experts in environmental education for the reforestation phase.
School now

image: Verena Wüstinger | CC-BY-NC-SA_black.png some rights reserved
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Help bring our project to life!
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