Presenters

Douglas McMeekin started working as a cultural and environmental consultant to the oil industry in the Amazon Region of Ecuador in 1986. This offered him the opportunity to spend significant time with the indigenous people in the region; to understand their problems and the best ways to improve their standard of living; to have access to some of the most remote areas of the Amazon Region and to learn the difficulties and solutions to logistical challenges involved with work in this region.

In 1991, Douglas formed FUNEDESIN, the Foundation for Integrated Education and Development, and has dedicated his life since then toward improving the standard of living of the people of the region and the preservation of the tropical rainforest. In 1992, he guided the work of the foundation in the development of a pilot educational project for the Amazon Region of Ecuador with funding from UNICEF.

In 1995, FUNEDESIN opened YACHANA LODGE, the world renowned educational eco-tourism facility on the Napo River, accessible only by motorized canoe. Yachana Lodge is providing a source of income and training for the staff of locals from the region, and giving visitors a window into the life of the people living in the Amazon Region. One hundred percent of the profit generated by the lodge goes to support the work of the foundation.

Also in 1995, the foundation helped over 30 communities form their own organization called Amanecer Campesino. Working with this organization, it was determined that the greatest need in the region was health care. Douglas helped guide this organization and find the support to build a complete medical facility in the community of Mondaña, on the Napo River.

In 1997, the Mondaña Clinic opened. This is the only medical facility providing permanent health care in the remote area along the Napo River. The clinic is now serving over 8,000 people in 45 villages and provides education to health promoters from many communities, vaccination programs, working with mothers and children, a program in reproductive health, canoe ambulance service, permanent attention in the clinic and regular community visits by the medical staff. The clinic is accessible only by motorized canoe. The foundation has also installed an extensive two-way radio communications system with radios in 35 villages for communication to the clinic for medical emergencies and general communication between communities.

One of the strongest features that Douglas McMeekin brings to his work with the foundation is innovation and ideas. One of these is the formation of a micro-enterprise, called YACHANA GOURMET in the year 2000. This company was created to develop food products from produce from the Amazon region of the country. The primary product is the unique Yachana Jungle Chocolate. This project is providing improved, Fair Trade income to the farmers. Yachana Gourmet will be a major financial supporter of FUNEDESIN’s projects in the future.

An agricultural improvement program was begun in 2000, and enlarged in 2002, with funding from the Canadian government. This program is designed to work with over 1,200 local farmers to improve their production of cacao (chocolate). The program complements the food processing facility.

The foundation is deeply concerned about the destruction of tropical forests in the region. In 1999, FUNEDESIN began a program of buying up a block of rainforest that is being threatened by logging activity. This program has now acquired over 3,600 acres of mostly primary tropical forest. This land is being used as a part of Yachana Lodge’s tourism program, for training of people from the region in conservation, and for scientific research. All the foundation’s land has been declared a Protected Forest by the Ecuadorian government and is inside the Gran Sumaco National Park, a Man and Biosphere Reserve.

Douglas McMeekin’s knowledge of the region and its people, and the positive and successful work he has been able to achieve through FUNEDESIN, has become a model for other development projects in the region. Non-governmental organizations, the Ecuadorian government and companies have all asked for advice and assistance from FUNEDESIN in some of their projects in the Amazon Region. The foundation is a leader in sustainable development and programs in health, education, construction, agriculture, conflict resolution, indigenous affairs, conservation, rainforest protection, micro-enterprise development, community organization and many other projects throughout a four-province area of the Amazon Region. Douglas McMeekin continues to dedicate his life to his philosophy that if the people feel there is hope, then solutions can be found to their problems.