October Newsletter 2023

Rainforest Visit Brings About Positive Changes

One CONAPAC volunteer came to the rainforest to help install Global Access 2030 water filtration systems and went home to tell her students about us to and donate to Adopt-A-School.

On October 4, 2023, Natalie Lincoln presented to students and teachers of Midtown Montessori Academy, in Colorado, about life on the Amazon and Napo Rivers, boat transportation (There are no cars in the forest!), how the different the weather is from Colorado, and who CONAPAC is and what we do. The hands-on presentation included students receiving a “passport” to fill in key points from the slide show, a boarding pass, a yes/no answer signaler, and a flag of Peru. Natalie also included food similar to juanes (a regional dish of seasoned rice, chicken, olives, and hard-boiled egg cooked in a bijau leaf), chifles (plantain chips), and chicha morada (purple corn juice prevalent all over Peru). She also shared the book The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry, as well as some handicrafts from rural communities. According to Natalie, the presentation has inspired students and teachers alike, and they are now working on a fundraiser to support CONAPAC through our Adopt-A-School program.

Natalie's display of books, handicrafts, and activity materials

It is often a personal experience that motivates people like Natalie to bring the rainforest home to share with others. Natalie came to Iquitos and the rural Peruvian Amazon with Global Access 2030, a nonprofit organization led by Rob Miller and Roger Cabbage, which has partnered with CONAPAC since 2018. Dedicated to increasing access to clean water, GA2030 developed an in-home water filtration system that is simple, fast, and easy to clean. Early each year, GA2030 donates their filter systems to CONAPAC, and together we install them in communities where a community water filter tower is either not an appropriate solution or we are waiting on funding to install a tower.

In March of this year, Rob and GA2030 came for a week of installations and home visits. Natalie and her husband Wes, and others associated with GA2030 visited CONAPAC Partner Communities, participating in installation workshops and monitoring previously installed filtration systems. During the week, we visited nine communities, installing 180 new systems and monitoring the use of these personal systems during home visits. Since 2018, we have installed 495 of these systems, increasing the access to clean water in each home! The community visits significantly impacted Natalie, Wes, and the other visitors from GA2030.

“Natalie shared her ideas and presentation plans with me and followed up later about how it went,” says our CONAPAC director, Megan McDaniel. “Her enthusiasm about CONAPAC Partner Communities and doing more to help CONAPAC’s work came through loud and clear over our emails. I couldn’t help but think how powerful a visit to the Amazon rainforest, Explorama Lodges, and the rural communities is, especially when there is an opportunity to spend time with CONAPAC.”

Does visiting communities with CONAPAC sound like something you would like to do? You can!
Each year, the Detroit Zoo partners with us to host volunteers during school supply deliveries in March; there is still time to sign up! The dates for 2024 are March 16-24 and March 23-31. Each week includes school supply deliveries; the second week includes a multi-day project in one community to benefit their school. To learn more, check out this file and/or head to this page on the Detroit Zoo's website.