Project: Creation of a community center for the Emberá tribe

The Emberá tribe is one of the biggest indigenous groups in Panama. In the province of Colon, Panama, we work with a village called El Progreso, which consists of approximately 80 families of the Emberá tribe and is located on Panama’s Caribbean coast.  For the last year, we have been working hand in hand with the community in order to help them improve their living conditions, while working to preserve their cultural identity, all while respecting the environment.

The village is remote and hard to reach, therefore it makes it hard for supplies, food, and even work to reach the village. The community is looking to create a communal place in order to facilitate their activities, such as celebrations, meetings, and traditional teachings. This project aims to help them to create a community center, where people can share their knowledge, learn, and create, in a communal atmosphere.

The center will have three main roles:

  1. To be a place of organization of workshops, talks, and teachings of different topics and traditions
  2. To be a place for a community kitchen to for the villagers to share meals and re-learn traditional cooking and basic food conservation techniques
  3. To be a place for celebration of rituals and ceremonies of traditional dance and music

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