by Emily Enders Odom, Mission Engagement & Support | Special to Presbyterian News Service
CERDET, the Center for Regional Studies in Tarija, Bolivia, supports Indigenous communities by, among other things, developing irrigation systems. (Contributed photo)
LOUISVILLE â When Manuel Nazario casts his net into the water these days, his catch is far less plentiful.
In the remote area of Bolivia near the Paraguayan-Argentina border, where Nazario and the members of his community mostly fish for a living, their traditional livelihood is now in severe jeopardy.
Home to an indigenous people known in Bolivia as the Weenhayek, also called the Wichà in Argentina, the Capirendita community is currently grappling with the devastating impact of climate change, irregular rainfall patterns, prolonged droughts, disease and mining pollution that creeps in from the Andean zone. As a result, Nazario and the families of Capirendita are finding their age-old ways of life and their means of economic support increasingly threatened, even as the people strive to maintain both their native language of Weenhayek and Spanish as a second language.