Rosa's Story - Coady International Institute - St. Francis Xavier ...

The leaders of Jambi Kiwa have developed strong internal agency by motivating
members and staff in three distinct ways. First, they have clearly articulated a vision
to address the issues facing rural communities in Chimborazo. Second, they have
identified concrete opportunities for members to contribute to the growth of a new
enterprise. Third, they have drawn on a long history of community leadership, mobilization
and action, as well as the collective indigenous knowledge of Jambi Kiwa’s
members.
Shared Vision
Jambi Kiwa’s leadership has been able to articulate a direction for the organization
that has captured the imagination of its members. They have tapped into a feeling
shared by many indigenous people in Chimborazo that cultural assimilation, degradation
of their lands, exploitation by middlemen, and the loss of their young people
to the cities of Ecuador, North America and Europe will only be overcome if they
organize themselves. Moreover, they have been able to make the case that Jambi
Kiwa is an attempt to address these cultural, environmental and economic issues
in a holistic manner.
Rosa describes the main objectives of Jambi Kiwa’s as: sharing and revaluing the
ancestral knowledge of medicinal plants; the development of new income generating
activities for indigenous families; the creation of a mechanism to eliminate the
intermediaries who profit from its members’ toil; and providing a way for her people
to follow the Andean cosmos-vision (the concept of being at one with Mother
Earth). To its leaders, Jambi Kiwa represents an opportunity to create environmentally
sustainable economic alternatives for indigenous people.
[What we have is] the belief in the power of community-based organizations; the
understanding that our organization is a learning centre, a new way of
educating…;[and] the commitment to work for the benefit of future generations (R.
Guamán, personal communication, October 14, 2004).
Ownership of the Process
Jambi Kiwa members see themselves as part of a social movement. As Rosa
points out, it is an organization with roots, because its members feel a moral
responsibility to make it work. She emphasizes that it is “not merely a good idea
with financial backing” (personal communication, October 14, 2004). Producers
and staff alike seem highly motivated by the possibility that Jambi Kiwa can provide
a new model for ensuring the survival of rural indigenous communities. The staff at
the factory in Riobamba also seemed motivated by the ways in which they were
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