Community of Sawawo Hito 40 Celebrates Completed Life Plan

In September, UAC visited the Ashéninka community of Sawawo Hito 40 to deliver copies of its completed Life Plan during a community-wide ceremony and celebration. Developed over several months in close collaboration with the community, the plan will guide decisions about the management and protection of their natural resources as well as infrastructure and investments needed to improve the standard of living in this very remote and difficult to access community located in Peru near the border with Acre, Brazil.

Members of the Sawawo Hito 40 Community and UAC field team that led development of the Life Plan over the previous few months.

As the name implies, a Life Plan is a strategic planning tool to help make decisions about sustainable development and future investments in a community. Through a series of participatory meetings, planning activities and workshops, UAC staff worked with Sawawo to help them answer three basic questions: Who are we? What do we want? and How do we do it? Life Plans are an important resource for NGO’s and government agencies to focus efforts on community needs, already decided upon by the community themselves and stated in their Plan.

Copies of the Life Plan were presented to the community in a ceremony attended by all community members, UAC staff, and leaders and representatives from neighboring communities, including those from the Brazilian community of Apiwtxa. The event culminated with a grand celebration, including food, a seemingly endless supply of fermented cassava-root beer called masato, and a soccer tournament.

This is the second Life Plan UAC has helped develop in the Yurua. The first was done a year ago with the community of Dulce Gloria.