Available Schools

Iquitos is a city of 400,000 in northeastern Peru, totally surrounded by the Amazon rainforest, with access only by air or the river. Close by is the Itaya River watershed, a major tributary of the Amazon. The region is under environmental pressure due to development, and oil and natural gas exploration. The indigenous peoples living in small villages in this region are fighting to protect their rights to the land. Schools in the urban center are disconnected from the forest.

The Amigos programs in the Iquitos region focus on educating teachers, students, and the local community, about the ecology and biodiversity of the rainforest and the necessity of preservationa and sustainable use of these resources.

Annual programming includes three workshops for teachers, two field trips with teachers, provision of resources and supplies, a monitoring process of schools, and activities with rural children in the Itaya watershed. Volunteers and environmental clubs organize community fairs and marches to raise awareness about environmental issues in the region.

The Amigos staff works directly with each school for two years to institute the programs. A flagship project "Medicinal Garden of the School" is instituted at each school, with involvement by the PTA in the project. Each school creates a garden with at least twenty varieties of useful plants commonly used by indigenous peoples in the Amazon for healing common ailments.

IEP Rosa de America Inca Roca Nuestra Senora de la Salud

Republica de Venezuela Sto Cristo de Bagazan

Simon Bolivar General don Jose de San Martin Arq. Fernando Belaunde Terry

Other Schools Currently Being Served by ACEER

Petronila Pera de Ferrando Colegio Nacional Iquitos Cesar Vallejo

Tupac Amaru Senora de Loreto Rumococha Inka Manko Kali

Rural Schools

These schools work with Amigos staff and a local shaman from Cahuide to maintain extensive medicinal plant gardens for their villages. In addition, the staff has designed activities using products of the garden to make art crafts and medicinal products such as tinctures and creams. Rural schools are also involved in the "Birds of the Amazon" project, monitoring migratory birds that are seen in both the USA and the Amazon.

Aura Murrieta - Aura serves at the director of ACEER's programs in Peru and oversees the environmental education programs in Iquitos, Puerto Maldonado and Pucallpa. A native of the Iquitos area, Aura is a naturalist and began her involvement in environmental education programs in the 1980s, working with private institutions to recover many places in Peru.

Aura has been involved with the ACEER since 1997 and has been sharing her knowledge of the environment with the students and teachers of the urban and rural areas of Iquitos.

Aurora Reyes - Aurora was born in Nauta, the oldest city in the Iquitos area, between the Maranon and Ucayali rivers. She was a teacher for seventeen years in the public schools and regularly included lessons on the environment in her classroom.

As the coordinator of the rural education program for ACEER around the Iquitos and Itaya regions, Aurora encourages teachers to improve their skills in working with students both in and out of the classroom .

Helga Henderson - Helga is a native of Iquitos and is a retired teacher. She began her teaching career in 1970 and was especially involved in training teachers.

In 1998, Helga became involved with the ACEER Foundation when she participated in the Jason Expedition in the rainforest. Currently, Helga coordinates the environmental education programs in the urban areas of Iquitos.

Antonio Montero - Antonio was raised by his grandparents since the age of four in the Peruvian Amazon village of Kokoma. His ancestors came from the high mountains of San Martin during the rubber boom to work along the Yanayacu stream and Amazon River.

Antonio learned shamanic practices from his grandfather and at the age of nine was left alone in the jungle for thirty days to learn from the forest. There he learned how plants heal, how to prepare them and how to be a shaman.

He first met Dr. Jim Duke in 1991 and this began his relationship with the ACEER Foundation. In 1995, Antonio accepted a full-time position with ACEER as curator of their gardens, first along the Rio Napo, and then at ATI along the Madre de Dios river.

Antonio shares his knowledge of medicinal plants with schools and communities in both the rural and urban areas of Iquitos and Puerto Maldonado and helps them design and create their own medicinal plant gardens. In addition, Antonio shares his knowledge of medicinal plants with some of the ACEER workshop participants visiting the rainforest of Peru.