The Wayuu ethnie
Wayuu people live in the semi-desert of La Guajira and represent 38% of the department’s population, department among the poorest of Colombia. The region is dry, mostly covered by sand and swept by trade wind. It knows more and more intense drought periods due to El Niño phenomena. Vegetation is poor, access to potable water difficult and contamination everywhere.
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Wayuu people are organized in rancheria and have a mixed economy based on pasture, fishing, handicraft and agriculture. They are one of the few indigenous colombian tribes to have resisted to the Spanish colonization and thus preserve their language and traditions. The now faced global warming, mining multinational and corruption that impede governmental money to reach targeted comunities in need. This is why it is so important for them to study in order to know and fight for their rights and adapt their way of living to stay autonomous.
Foto: Kounahk Jesiat
The ethno-educative centre n°12
Muurai community is located at 10km from Riohacha, La Guajira's prefecture, and hosts the college we are working with. This one has been started and developped by José Francisco Ballestero Jusayu, one of the community children, since 2002.
​The centre is called ethno educative because its pedagogical program is based on Wayuu culture. It also favours wayuu people recruitment in order to ease children's instruction and contribute to local development.
Years after years, percieving the opportunities for theuir kids, families around the center decided to built primary school and asked to be affiliated to the center in order to benefit from its organization (profesional teachers, food and water, educative material...).
The college counts thus now with 14 branchs allowing nearly 1.000 children to go to school. the main office, Muurai, greets 400 children from nursery to ninth grade. The other branchs welcome between 20 and 50 childrens, frequently in the same room despite of their different of age and grade.
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If it improves continously its services, the centre has dificulties to offer, in an autonomous and sustainable way, decent educational conditions to all these kids.It needs infrastructure to recieve them and to reduce its dependance to the external operator elected each year that provide the branches with food and water.
This is why, with the director and local organisations (find them here), Adelarte built a 3 years development program.
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What do we do to answer their issues?
