Our Mission

Through reforesting and preserving medicinal plant species and developing a learning center, we hope not only to reconnect our community-members with their millennial knowledge for improving their health, but also to generate a sustainable economy that will boost community well-being.

Protect Medicinal Plants

We aim to reforest and preserve the medicinal plants in our territory by tending our ten hectare forest reserve that is essential to our mission. These plants are important for the health of our community members. For the Shipibo, each tree and plant has their own ibo (spirit, owner or master). The trees are important protectors, teachers, and healers. We aim to protect our forest and preserve our community’s relations with the ibo.

 

Revitalize Traditional Knowledge

Traditional healing systems are essential to community health and well-being. We are empowering our community members to remember their ancestral knowledge and heal their families with plant wisdom. To ensure that future generations of Shipibo-Konibo learn this knowledge, we are already educating our youth about the plants in our community. By building a learning center, our educational offerings will be strengthened and enable them to be shared beyond our community.

 
 

Build a Sustainable Economy

Through both ecotourism and selling plant medicines made from our Living Pharmacy, we hope to generate a sustainable economic enterprise for the community of Paoyhan. We envision a place for intercultural exchange, where school groups, researchers, and tourists can come to learn about plant medicines in their natural habitats. We also want to sell value-added medicinal products like salves and agua florida made from the plants in our reserve.

Traditional healing systems are essential to community health and well-being. We are empowering our community members to remember their ancestral knowledge and heal their families with plant wisdom.

Please watch this video from 2018 to learn more about our mission. We are no longer working directly with Alianza Arkana, as we have become our own formalized organization. Since the making of this video, we have also changed the name of our organization to Farmacia Viva Shipibo Sanken Yaka.

 
 

Who are we?

We are a Shipibo-Konibo community organization with members from Paoyhan and Paococha (sister communities) in the Amazon of Peru. Our communities lie on the banks of the Ucayali River, around 4 hours downriver from the city of Pucallpa. Our organization has 14 active members, both men and women, from our community. We also have outsider advisors on our team who help with fundraising, organizing, and website administration.

Committee Members

  • Humberto Rojas Martinez - President

  • Nora Reategui Castro - Vice-President

  • Elías Medina Rojas - Treasurer

  • Nora Marcelina Sánchez Magín - Secretary

  • Carolina Mahua Nunta - Advisor

  • James Franco Rojas - Youth Coordinator

  • Fermín Valera Sinuiri - Member

  • Manuel Mahua Peres - Member

  • Segundo Franco Vasquez - Member

  • Saola Barbaran Saboya - Member

  • Simon Pedro Arce Rojas - Member

  • Lucila Inca Mahua - Member

  • Alvina Ramirez Huayta - Member

  • Neda Rojas Sanchez - Member

Outsider Advisors

  • Laura Dev

  • Clayton Hawkins Lewis