Strengthening Indigenous Culture

Shamans and Apprentices: Keeping traditional knowledge alive in the Amazon. For five tribes of the Colombian Amazon, ACT provides support for 96 traditional healers and their apprentices, allowing them to focus on the restoration of ancestral medicinal practices in their communities. In southern Suriname, ACT’s flagship “Shamans and Apprentices” program provides stipends and structured educational…

Read More

Integrated Healthcare

Traditional medicine clinics in Suriname. In the rainforests of southern Suriname, ACT has a longstanding program – carried out by tribal shamans and their apprentices in partnership with the principal primary care provider to the region – seeking the promotion of effective traditional medicine and its integration into the national healthcare model. To this end,…

Read More

Sustainable Development

Supporting food security within indigenous communities. Because indigenous groups are unable to conduct much if any conservation work if their livelihood needs are not met, ACT works with its partners to develop both sustainable traditional agriculture and income generation programs. For ACT’s indigenous partners, the “sustainable” part of “sustainable development” typically is second nature, but…

Read More

Indigenous Land Protection

Launching of the first indigenous park guard training course in the northeast Amazon. ACT has instituted the first indigenous park guard training course in the northeast Amazon, a program that has the support and collaboration of the International Ranger Federation. ACT also has instituted a parallel course for government and NGO staff of northern Brazil;…

Read More

Indigenous Land Management

Comprehensive, long-term sustainable management plans for the Suruí people. In the western Brazilian Amazon, ACT helped the Suruí people develop a comprehensive sustainable management plan for some of the most threatened forests in the Amazon.

Read More

Women's Programs

Supporting and empowering women healers. In Colombia, ACT supported the creation and continues to sponsor the operations of the first network of women shamans in the entire northwest Amazon. ACT built a dedicated center for their use that can accommodate 90 individuals for overnight stays.

Read More