FORMABIAP, The Bilingual Teacher Training Program for the Peruvian Amazon

PRESERVING A WAY OF LIFE IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON

Once considered among the world’s most remote places, the Peruvian Amazon is becoming more and more accessible to tourism each day. While this brings economic opportunity to a region where it’s sorely needed, it also poses a threat to the Indigenous traditions that have endured here for countless generations.

Recognizing a need to preserve this fading legacy, the Bilingual Teacher Training Program for the Peruvian Amazon (Formabiap) opened its doors in 1998. This AKP-supported program aims to revalue the history, technology, practices and knowledge of Amazonian Indigenous peoples while preserving the native languages that might otherwise be lost to globalization.

Located near Iquitos, Formabiap’s facility provides food, accommodation and medical care for the teaching students as they are trained over five years. For the region’s young mothers, the facility also affords a haven where they can study while their children are accompanied by a caregiver.

The school currently hosts 212 students from the Kukama Kukamiria, Shawi, Kichwa and Achuar Indigenous communities, and has benefited thousands of teachers and hundreds of thousands of children since the program’s inception.

Looking to the future, AKP plans to support the facility’s capacity and outreach, ensuring the time-honored traditions of the Amazon will endure for generations to come.