St Vincent de Paul Primary School, Strathmore, Victoria, has come up with a novel way to raise money in support of a reforestation project amongst Pehuenche families in Chile. The Pehuenches are an indigenous ethnic group who live in isolated high mountain valleys of the Andes mountain range in South-Central Chile and across the border in neighbouring Argentina.
The name Pehuenche means the “people of the pehuén”, the pehuén being the nutritious seeds of the Monkey Puzzle Tree - “Araucaria Araucana", which only grows in this part of the Andes between the altitudes of 900 and 1500 metres. This seed is the staple diet of the Pehuenche people.
On Friday, August 7, 2015, the children of St Vincent de Paul School, along with their parents and teachers, participated in a Walkathon in the streets around the school. They raised an amazing $12,000 which has been sent to the Pehuenche project in Chile in order to buy seeds, organize Greenhouses, digging materials and a water system for the project.
The children made an enormous effort in seeking sponsors for their Walkathon. Many of them walked the route around the school several times more than was to be expected, being conscious of the purpose of the project in the southern Andes mountain range of Chile. In seeking a novel way to raise money for this project, St Vincent de Paul Primary School chose a Walkathon as a way to enhance and promote fitness amongst students, parents and staff.
This is the third year that St Vincent de Paul Primary School has worked to support the Pehuenche Project, which aims to help these indigenous people generate enough income to remain on their land and thereby protect their own unique language and culture.
In Chile, the project is operated by a married couple, Eduardo and Rosa Cueto, who come from one of the old Columban parishes in Santiago, Jesus de Nazaret, on the southern periphery of Santiago. They first visited the Pehuenches in 1998 on a parish mission outreach. They became friends with many Pehuenche families and have decided to dedicate their lives to working alongside them in improving their living conditions and protecting their culture and language.
Over the past 18 years Eduardo and Rosa have made the 1600 kilometre return bus trip several times a year to visit the Pehuenche families in their isolated mountain valleys.
Pehuenche families who need to come to Santiago for medical treatment or educational opportunities stay with Eduardo and Rosa. Back in their parish in Santiago, Eduardo and Rosa are active Extraordinary Ministers of Communion, regularly taking communion to the sick, visiting the poor and helping to organize parish activities. They have two children.
The current emphasis in the project is the reforestation with native trees of the mountainous slopes around the small holdings of the Pehuenche families. The original valuable hard wood native forests were mostly cut down and sold during the years of Chile’s military dictatorship and in many parts replaced by non-native pines. The pines have not grown well due to their inability to bear the weight of the heavy snow the region receives every winter and to adapt to the soil of the area, which is predominately volcanic ash.
Last year Eduardo and Rosa distributed seeds from six local native tree species to many interested families in the area as well as materials and support to build plastic covered Greenhouses where the seeds can germinate. These species are native to the area and thus adapted to the heavy snow fall and the volcanic ash soil. The first seedlings were planted out in May 2016 and being natives, will be able to cope with the heavy snow over the winter months. A kindergarten in the area is also involved in the project and will be creating their own reforestation project.
Once the trees grow, the Pehuenche families will be able to systemically harvest in a sustainable manner some of the valuable hard wood timber from these native species and use them to make carvings and souvenirs for tourists who come in summer or to sell for cabinet timber.
Back in Australia, Columban Fr Dan Harding and Mrs Janette Mentha from the Melbourne based Columban Mission Centre, regularly visit the school to discuss the progress of the project and to offer PowerPoint Presentations on it. Each year there are several bi-lingual conversations using Skype that are organized between Eduardo and Rosa in Santiago and the children of St Vincent de Paul School about the progress of the project.
In the name of all the Pehuenche families involved and Eduardo and Rosa Cueto, the Missionary Society of St Columban would like to thank the children, parents and staff of St Vincent de Paul Primary School, Strathmore, for all their hard work and wonderful support. The August 2015 Walkathon was a wonderful achievement.
Columban Fr Daniel Harding is the Editor of The Far East magazine in Aus/NZ.