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Home Current Projects Rio Sambú, Darién Wounáan-Indian Village, Darién "La Escuelita" Yaviza, Darién Selection Criteria Contact Us		THE PANGEA PROJECT currently focuses it financial support on Panama where we have an extensive network of contacts and experience to guarantee the effective use of funds.
		Rio Sambú, Darién
		In Rio Sambú/ Puerto Indio, Darién Province, THE PANGEA PROJECT supports a community tourism project. Werara, a group of Embera-Indian women, has opened a small restaurant and a bakery where they offer sweets based on local agricultural products such as "borojo", a rare tropical fruit rich in vitamins. They now want to construct a visitor's centre and add an ecological toilet and shower to the center to accommodate overnight guests. Werara is well organised and involves the surrounding communities by collecting their handicraft and selling it to tourists in Puerto Indio. In addition, they have a folkloric dance group and can offer body painting based on "jagua", a traditionally used natural color used for that purpose. THE PANGEA PROJECT financially supports this highly motivated and well organized group of women in order to facilitate the development of their own community-based tourism. A network of contacts to international development organisations active in the area guarantees that our funds are used effectively.
		Wounáan-Indian Village, Darién
		THE PANGEA PROJECT helped to refurbish the village hostel of a Wounáan-Indian village in the Province of Darién by providing the village with airbeds and hammocks which they were unable to afford themselves. The village can now offer overnight stays to tourists and develop their own small-scale community tourism. Tourism is the only way to generate income in this remote area. The services and products on offer to tourists range from board and lodge, to fishing trips and guided walking-tours through the rainforest to the sale of handicraft. Emberá and Wounáan Indians are famous for their fine basket work and miniature carvings of birds and animals from an ivory-like palm nut called tagua. The handicraft made in Boca de Lara rank among the finest in the Darién.
		"La Escuelita" in Yaviza, Darién
		THE PANGEA PROJECT supports “La Escuelita”, a music and dance school for children in Yaviza, Province of Darién. The name “La Escuelita” means little school in Spanish and indeed it is more than just a music school. University students from Yaviza together with members of the local council initiated this project to encourage children from difficult socio-economic backgrounds to discover and enhance their skills by learning how to dance and play instruments, whilst simultaneously improving their ability to read and write. “La Escuelita” helps to deepen the cultural roots from West Africa in this Afro-Panamanian community. It promotes an enticing folklore developed in the Province of Darién including local Afro-Panamanian dances such as Bunde, Tamborito and Bullerengue.