With their participation in AIRR, Chasoy and the other grant winners hope to build up their enterprises so they can become examples of green businesses in the region, strengthening their cultures and the economic growth of their communities.
SHINYAK generates a source of income for 18 people working full time and eight people part time. This includes mothers who are heads of households or who were affected by armed conflict during the decades-long civil war. The association seeks to preserve the cultural legacy of the Inga and Kamëntšá Biyá peoples.
According to Chasoy, working with wood is a way of conserving his culture because each craft and piece of furniture serves as a canvas. Aspects of the Indigenous worldview can be represented on the canvas so that they endure and can be shared with others.
"My grandfather made traditional benches, as did my father,” Chasoy said. “They taught us about wood, the types and uses, and that knowledge helped us start this enterprise."
Chasoy will use the resources from the AIRR project to build a facility to produce furniture and handicrafts made of sustainably harvested wood. This will help expand his business and apply the company’s models for standardizing carving methods and measurements to save materials.
"In our case, the idea is to become a model company in the southern part of the country for its sustainable production techniques and to continue growing to increase our capacity to help people in our communities," Chasoy says.
