WAGUCHA signs a cultural and scientific cooperation agreement with the Municipality of Trujillo and the HISPANOAMERICANA University
On December 2, 2020, in the city of Trujillo, Honduras, Mr. Hector Raul Mendoza Galindo, Major of the City of Trujillo, Mrs. Ana Lucy Bengochea Martinez, President of the Wagucha Peasant Production Association, known as an expert in community resilience, and Architect Edwin Gonzalez Hernandez , Head of the Architecture School of the Hispanoamericana University in Costa Rica, signed the Cultural and Scientific Cooperation Pledge, with the objective to support mutual cooperation and the exchange of knowledge, social research, student trainings for training in agricultural practices, seedbank elaboration, and crop diversification, as well as the recovery of native Garifuna and indigenous seeds and practices.
The cooperation pledge will be carried out in four modalities:
a) student and faculty exchanges,
b) development of joint research studies,
c) information, documentation and scientific publication exchange, and
d) interaction through meetings and seminars.
Mrs. Evangelista Garcia, Garifuna authority and community leader with a wide recognition and respectability, was the honorable witness to the pledge signing.
According to Ana Lucy Bengochea, the alliance established through this pledge, comes as a “boost to the adaptation and recovery actions from the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and the devastation of hurricanes ETA and IOTA in that region.”
It is expected that the leaders, their families, and especially the youth of the affected communities, will benefit from this partnership and collaborate in the exchanges, courses, research, and resilience practices that may develop as a result. Besides the benefits of exchanging knowledge and wisdoms, the agreement also serves to strengthen regional cooperation and partnership between Honduras and Costa Rica.