R&R's mission is to root and weave an intercultural coalition to visibilize the threatened Chocó forests, ancestral territories, and waters.

We create spaces for Indigenous and Afro-descendant communities of the Chocó Biogeographic Region to lead their territories and environmental justice the world over. As Roots & Routes IC, we believe that we must come together across cultures and differences to resolve the world's biggest problems. Thus, we facilitate the exchange of ancestral knowledge between cultures, highlighting the inherent wisdom of each one while, together, fighting for respect for human and Nature's rights. 

R&R’s approach has four principal branches: 

Re-storying (Community-led Education & Media): We empower communities to reclaim their narratives, using education and media to articulate their stories and defend their ancestral territories. 
Regenerating (Living Territories & Economies): We promote understanding of local geographies and collective well-being through watershed thinking, fostering sustainable economies.
Revindicating (Environmental & Climate Justice): Our educational efforts focus on Indigenous, human and Nature’s rights at the national and international levels. 
Reciprocating: (Intercultural Education): We facilitate intercultural exchanges that nurture mutual learning in which we are all both teachers and learners.

The documentary "Together for Water💦" (see together4water.com) worked with the Indigenous and Black youth of the Ecuadorian Chocó Rainforest to directly impact their own survival. Their lives are currently on the line due to toxic river contamination. They are given the tools to document, through film, the struggles and hopes of their people and their land. Then, international interns, from our Youth Visionary Collective, build on those local stories with social media content, further publicizing the issues, while bridging cultures and fostering better understanding between North and South America, and across the world.

Roots & Routes IC

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