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Center for Wild Hope and the Achuar of Sharamentsa

A partnership bringing to life the dream of the community of Sharmentsa and the Children of the Pastaza.

Center for Wild Hope founder, Laurie Benson, visited Sharamentsa in December 2025 to learn more about their project and vision. A partnership was formed and it is an incredible honor to be on this journey together.

Sponsor a Student

Your support is Funding:

  • Cultural Preservation and Generational Pride

  • Life-Centered Education that Honors all Life

  • Preservation of Indigenous Ways and Wisdom

  • Longer-term change identified by the articles in the UN Declaration on Rights of Indigenous Peoples

  • Future Leaders Grounded in Equality, Unity, and Co-Creative Solutions

The Children of the Pastaza is a collaboration between the Community of Sharmentsa and that Center for Wild Hope, a 501c3. All donations will receive a tax donation letter.

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CHOOSE AN AMOUNT TO GIVE

Your sponsorship helps cover the real costs of learning—materials, instruction, connectivity, and community-based support—so students can stay with their families, elders, and forest.

$100

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Our Partnership


Walking Together by Invitation

This Children of the Pastaza began with an invitation.
 
The Achuar community of Sharamentsa has carried a vision for years: to keep their children home, learning on their ancestral lands, grounded in culture, family, and the forest that sustains life. Through their own leadership and labor, they have already begun bringing this dream to life.
 
Center for Wild Hope was invited into partnership to actively support this community-led vision.
 
Honoring Community Leadership

The work unfolding in Sharamentsa is guided by the Achuar themselves—by elders, families, and community leaders who hold deep responsibility for their children, Indigenous culture, and territory.
 
Our partnership is rooted in respect for that leadership. Decisions about priorities, pace, and direction are defined by the community. Center for Wild Hope’s role is to support what the community has already set in motion and to help remove barriers to their success.
 
We do not arrive with answers. We arrive with humility, listening, and a commitment to stand alongside.
 
Shared Commitment, Distinct Roles

This partnership is built on trust, clarity, and shared purpose.
 
The Achuar community leads by:

  • Defining the vision and priorities

  • Guiding educational and cultural integrity

  • Grounding all work in relationship to land and community
     

Center for Wild Hope supports by:

  • Mobilizing resources and funding

  • Providing administrative, logistical, and organizational support

  • Amplifying community voices and stories with consent

  • Building respectful bridges with aligned allies
     

Together, we work to ensure that education serves life rather than separating children from it.
 
A Partnership Rooted in Respect

Center for Wild Hope is deeply honored to support the community’s commitment, courage, and collective effort. 
 
We are accountable to the community, committed to long-term relationship, and guided by the understanding that lasting impact grows from trust and reciprocity.
 
Bringing a Shared Dream to Life

This partnership exists to help transform a long-held community dream into an enduring reality—one where children can learn at home, culture remains alive, and the forest continues to stand.

We are grateful to walk this path together.

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