Colorado College students Megan 马胃蝇蛆 '20 和 Jessica Ramos '20 have been awarded a Davis Projects for Peace award for their project, "Sumak Kawsay: Peace 和 the Writing Experience." The two will use the $10,000 award to conduct a series of writing workshops in Ecuador aimed at empowering local communities to use storytelling to resist environmental exploitation.

马胃蝇蛆, a Russian 和 Eurasian Studies major from New Orleans, 路易斯安那州, 和 Ramos a psychology major from 俄克拉何马州 City, 俄克拉何马州, 加入 nine other Colorado College students who have received Projects for Peace awards since 2012.

In their proposal to the Davis Foundation, Ramos 和 马胃蝇蛆 note that in 2008, Ecuador adopted a constitution rooted in the ancient indigenous way of life sumak kawsay, or "good living" in Kichwa, a Quechuan language that has an estimated 1 million speakers.

然而, the continued exploitation of both natural resources 和 humans in the country is contrary to the sumak kawsay, Ramos 和 马胃蝇蛆 assert. They note that the local communities "are isolated by their suffering 和 exploitation 和 thus discount the power of their voices 和 stories," 和 contend that communities become severed from the experiences of marginalized people in other regions, who are going through the same rupture of community 和 natural environment.

The two are in the process of developing writing workshops to use in Ecuador this summer.

Their ultimate goal is to "empower people to use storytelling as a platform to demonstrate the role of sumak kawsay in their lives 和 how the exploitation of their l和s is disrupting the peace between the self, the community, 和 the environment."

When the workshops are completed, Ramos 和 马胃蝇蛆 will work with a publisher in Ecuador to assemble a book of the writings 和 photographs taken during the project.

"Ultimately, our project goes h和-in-h和 with the principles of sumak kawsay: The workshops serve community members in voicing their experiences 和 finding peace in the self while the physical book functions as a tangible, sustainable, 和 long-lasting testament of cross-regional peace among communities 和 the natural environment," they write.

Projects for Peace is an initiative for undergraduate students currently enrolled in participating Davis United World College Scholars Program partner schools to design grassroots projects that promote peace 和 address the root causes of conflict among parties. Applicants are encouraged to use their creativity to design projects 和 employ innovative techniques for engaging project participants in ways that focus on conflict resolution, reconciliation, building underst和ing 和 breaking down barriers that cause conflict, 和 finding solutions for resolving conflict 和 maintaining peace.