The Pyramid Project
The Pyramid Project |
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The Rebuilding of Belen
“Belen" Belen is on the most South-Eastern tip of Iquitos and is one of the poorest places in the world. All the homes are on stilts because for most of the year Belen is flooded by the river Itaya, a subsidiary of the Amazon. Some tourist guides refer to Belen as the "mini Venice of the Amazonas". Belen also has a thriving market which opens before dawn with the trading of fish. Throughout the day the Belen market supports 100s of busy people. If you are a mother in Iquitos looking to feed your family as cheaply as you can you will probably start your day in Belen market. Also Belen market is one of the last places left where you can buy all the magical, healing plants of the jungle - these stalls are fascinating and definitely worth a visit if you go to Iquitos
“The
People" The people of Belen are very friendly and crime is not a problem here despite the fact that many people are not fully employed. Often you see people just sitting around wondering how they will get their next few Sols to buy a meal. Boatmen wait in their boats for hours and if they are lucky they might get a passenger who will spend a dollar. As you approach the boatmen you'll see their desperation as they try to get you to choose their boat
“Pollution" The dark side of Belen is the pollution. Thirty years ago a community could still get away with throwing their rubbish in the river because it was organic and would decompose back into nature. Nowadays, leaves used to cover food have been replaced by plastic bags and tin cans and plastic bottles of the modern world have invaded. Well, look for yourself...
The free range chickens are eating this toxic garbage and then man is eating the chickens. The problems from this cut deeply but no one really knows what to do and too few here are doing anything about it! The waste above will eventually get washed away by the river Itaya - some will get eaten by the fish and come back to pollute people right away but where does the rest go? "Away" isn't really the right word to use because nature is not infinite The people of Belen have lost their connect to nature just like most of the people of the world. They don't even see the rubbish - in fact they bath in it. If you take a person from Iquitos and asked them to pick up all the rubbish around them then most cannot even distinguish between manmade items and organic items such as leaves. When a person of Iquitos has finished with a plastic bag it is immediately discarded onto the ground without a second thought. There seems to be no environmental consciousness here at all
“Pollution
Solution" The Pyramid Project will educate people here, starting in the schools, how to manage their litter. The project will pay for all the rubbish to be removed and buried. We will install regular refuge collection and set-up a whole infrastructure to keep the problem solved, working in harmony with the local government. The river Italya will be sacred once more and the people of Belen will be clean
“Rebuilding
Homes" The next step for Belen is to start rebuilding the houses. It has been calculated by the Pyramid Project that most houses could be rebuilt for around $1,000,000. The builders would be the people of Belen themselves. The suppliers of wood would be the people of Belen.
What will happen is that the initial injection of cash will grow within the community as a new wealth circulates. The builders will earn money that will help them to buy one of the new homes. The woman selling the fish to all the hungry builders will be able to save up for one of the new homes too. By placing a simple and cheap mortgage on the new properties the original injection would in fact be paid back... Belen gets rebuilt for free. People that once sat around handcuffed by poverty are given the liberty to work their way out. This is the way out for these people The pyramid project will manage the whole operation to ensure business integrity and to prevent well meant injections of cash falling into the wrong hands. In the third world the force of poverty will corrupt many good men. Those responsible for large sums of money may place their family (perhaps extended to over 20 people) and their personal needs above their work responsibilities leading to a business that is leaking cash. The ultimate result of this is the business collapses leading to problems far bigger then the original short term needs of one business man's family If Belen was clean and we had new homes for people then perhaps more tourists would want to see this "Little Venice of the Amazon" and a tourist industry could flourish here
“Ship
Building" The Pyramid Project is committed to helping the people of Belen over the long term. In addition to the above, the Pyramid Project will set-up an eco-friendly ship building yard employing many people and with the commitment to recycle all the profits back into Belen and into the local government of Iquitos. Boat building is a tradition in Belen but has been marred by bad management and corruption in the past. We'll call the first ship we build "Integrity" and the second, "The Pride of Belen" It should be possible to build ships that are seaworthy here and take them out through the Amazon. I personally would like to see sailing boats built using some of the beautiful jungle woods. The point is that with a good tight management, good promotion here, open accounting and reinvestment of the profits back into raising the living standard of Belen, the long term future for this district looks excellent
“Can
you help" "The Rebuilding of Belen" project is currently due to start in September 2009. If you would like to help with this project then please get in contact. Do you know how to sail or have experience building sailing boats? Donations are also welcomed as they could help us to get started earlier. If you are a spiritual, entrepreneurial type - passionate about the environment but with a level head for business, finances and organisation then we would love to hear from you. So would a few tens of thousands of our friends in Belen
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