CHAPÁ PROJECT

INTRODUCTION - EL CHAPA: ABORIGINE COMMUNITY - PROJECT CHARACTERICTICS - GUARANÍ COMMUNITIES IN ARGENTINA

INTRODUCTION

Covitour intends this project to have a social scope and a to be a solidarity gesture. In that sense, we will use all our resources, leadership and well-known position in the international market to boost touristic activities in the region of Jesuitic-Guaraní Missions, which has been declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO, generating a sustainable increase in the number of tourists visiting the area, especially those from abroad, and extending their stay in the region.

The emphasis will be focused on the allocation of a percentage of the collected funds to different social and green activities, protecting the aborigines and their environment. The differential factor of our proposal is that we carefully analyzed all the factors the prevent touristic development in said area and transformed them based on the configuration of a net, which is nothing less than a chain of supportive and professional responsibilities offered to the visitor for the sake of their ease and confort.

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EL CHAPA - ABORIGINE COMMUNITY

“El Chapa”: It is a Guaraní aborigine community and, as all Guaraníes, they are the owners of all the land of Misiones, Paraguay and the south of Brazil, but the pushing immigrants have reduced the land they can inhabit to only rough areas that they, specially Europeans immigrants, do not have interest in exploiting.

The communtity “El Chapa” is located in Alberdi, middle way between Corpus and Oberá, on a dirt road. It is the crossing road between route 103 with route 6 and, coming from Oberá, you pass by Alvear first. The reservation is located 12 kilometres away from route 6. They live in 600 hectares of virgin woods, on rocky terrain with some land suitable for farming. They are not allowed to exploit the timberland.
They cultivate some plots with tapioca and corn for their own use. They sell some tapioca, which is welcomed in the surroundings.

The government built a school with wooden materials, concrete floors; it has two rooms, a classroom and a dining room, but the latter is also currently used as classroom. The school has pipes and a water tank, but there is no water supply, which is kind of weird since by provincial statutes you cannot built a school in an area with no water supply.
In the community, the water is distributed from a little slope that collects it into a ditch covered with concrete, which was excavated at a distance of 600 meters from where the school is located. That same water is used for all proposes and its chemical composition has never been analyzed, so its quality is unknown. During dry summers, the water supply decreases and the situation becomes critical.
Every child that attends to school is granted an allowance that covers for their Monday through Friday lunches, even during the school recess period. That lunch consists of a daily vegetables and flower derivatives menu, and meat three times a week. The money is not enough to cover breakfast. Some years ago, they used to receive a cookie with an infusion for breakfast.

In general, the children hygiene conditions are poor; their clothes are fine, but dirty. Only 50% of them wear some kind of footwear.

The Cacique receives a salary from the provincial government that, including the family allowance, goes up to $600, and he bears the position of Sanitary Agent of the Community.
They do not have medical assistance. The sanitary level is poor, mainly due to the scarce amount of available water and the difficulties of transporting it in small containers.
Life expectancy is low and they do not have a cooking culture so as to make the most out of the healthy edible products. Also, they are subject to great discrimination.

If a supply of drinking water were to be granted to this community, which would not entail such a great investment, the community would grow due to a higher life expectancy and the immigration of other communities from the north, where living conditions are even worse.

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PROJECT CHARACTERICTICS

Our company, being aware of the social and supportive scope that Receptive Tourism can achieve, has conceived this project with the aim of utilize all its resources, leadership, and well-known position in the international market to boost international tourism in the region of Jesuit-Guaraní Missions, declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, generating a sustainable increase in the number of tourists visiting the area, specially those from abroad, extending their stay in the region.

In that sense, we have developed touristic products and we will market them internationally through different channels such as vendors in Europe and Asia. Also, we will focus on providing more information about the region to the different vendors through workshops, training meetings, etc.

All these actions will result in collecting funds, a percentage of which will be allocated to different activities intended to improve the living conditions of Guaraní aborigines from the region of the old Jesuit missions, which were destroyed at the beginning of the XIX century. In said region, all aborigines that were not able to escape were killed or slaved, and were taken up north to work in farming or to be completely outcast. Some basic and achievable needs have been established, such as providing a water supply that can allow “El Chapá” community, located in Alberdi, Misiones, to improve their living conditions.

There are few initiatives towards exploiting the area that covers Paraguay, Misiones and the south of Brazil, where the old Guaraní missions used to be. That is why we have conceived this project, to boost touristic activities in the region of Jesuitic-Guaraní Missions, which has been declared Cultural Heritage of Humanity by the UNESCO, generating a sustainable increase in the number of tourists visiting the area, especially those from abroad, and extending their stay in the region.

Project Coordinator

COVITOUR CONGRESS SA
Leg. 8969
Freire 1512, Buenos Aires
Tel 54 11 4555 0420
Fax. 54 11 4554 0308
e-mail: covinet@covitour.com
www.covitour.com

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GUARANÍ COMMUNITIES IN ARGENTINA

The Guaraní aborigines used to inhabit the vast area that is now the province of Misiones, the north of the province of Corrientes, all Paraguay and the south of Brazil. They also inhabited Bolivia and the north of Uruguay, though in less quantities.
The incursions of the so called bandeirantes or mamelucos, who were slaves hunters coming from the north, pushed the Guaraníes to the south. The Jesuits organized the Guaraníes in communities, where they work in Reductions and performed community work in farming and different occupations such as carpenter, blacksmith, handcraft, etc.
The pushing of the bandeirantes resulted in several refoundations of the Jesuit communities further South. Despite that, the communities had up to 141,128 inhabitants in the year 1732, counting 30 different villages (7 in Brazil, 8 in Paraguay and 15 in Argentina), and they got extinguished in the first decade of the XIX century.
The reduction of San Ignacio Miní was destroyed in 1817 by the attacks of the banderiantes and partially refounded in 1940.

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