Meeting the local NGO

Warme
Raul is a great. His knowledge of the area, where he's lived most of his life, is impressive. He completed his PhD a couple of years ago: he studied an organisation called WARME SAYAJSUNUQO, which means 'persevering women'. Warme was started in the mid-1990s by a woman called Rosario to help all the indigenous communities join together for development. Today, it's a huge success and runs micro-credit banks, handicrafts workshops, three gold mining companies using sustainable mining techniques, an internet café, an entrepreneurs training centre for indigenous people, an eco-tourism project funded by the InterAmerican Development Bank, and a host of other initiatives.

Warme is run by the communities for the communities. Indigenous people in Argentina have been oppressed for centuries and they're just starting to rediscover their identity. Warme is at the heart of a revolution in this area.

Warme covers 12 districts over an area of around 40,000 square kilometres (each district is roughly 3,000-4,000 square kilometers). 100 communities (each of about 40-50 families) live in the area so in all around 25,000 people are part of Warme.

Many villages have limited access to the grid and in any case most families spend much of their time away from the village in the wilderness. They usually have two or three huts scattered in these remote areas, which they stay in when they tend their herds of lamas. These huts have no electricity and so they rely on the usual candles and kerosene lamps, with the usual health and environmental consequences.

Nick