Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Karen Duffy. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Hi Karen, thanks for joining us today. Let’s start with the story of your mission. What should we know?
Since 1982 Karen Duffy, the founder and director of Come to the Rainforest Foundation, has had a heart for the indigenous peoples of the Amazonian rainforest. While in college Karen had a strong desire to serve the indigenous who live in this remote rainforest. But Karen’s life went in several different directions, all moving her farther and farther away from the dream of serving in the rainforest. The desire and dream were tucked carefully away and Karen thought she would never serve in the rainforest. But in 2010 Karen had the opportunity to go to the Ecuadorian rainforest and serve on a medical mission. While there, her heart fell in love with the indigenous peoples and she knew that she would be returning to serve them.
And thus, in 2012, Come to the Rainforest 501c3 Foundation became a reality! It emerged out of Karen’s pursuit to inspire and support the remote indigenous communities of the Ecuadorian rainforest, and a desire for her actions to speak louder than words. Come to the Rainforest works alongside the indigenous who live in remote villages deep in the Ecuadorian rainforest. The majority of our work takes place in the Pastaza and Napo rainforest provinces.
Our goal is to connect people stateside with unique opportunities to serve and work among the remote indigenous communities in the rainforest through short-term experiences. To fulfill that mission, the Come to the Rainforest Foundation organizes and leads four differently focused short-term opportunities: cultural immersion trips, faith-based mission experiences, humanitarian initiatives such as medical and vision trips, and educational focused trips.
We only work with tribes and villages who have extended an invitation to us to come and we collaborate with local indigenous leaders to understand the pressing needs of each community we serve. Our long-term vision is to see indigenous peoples teach, train, support and minister to other indigenous peoples. Come to the Rainforest Foundation strives to use resources from within the country as much as possible, not wishing to promote dependency or paternalism as a result of a handout, nor do we seek anything in return for our work.
We actively seek to partner with churches of any denomination, as well as U.S., foreign and local Non-
Governmental Organizations (NGOs) to help support our endeavors and projects.
Karen, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
Come to the Rainforest provides the indigenous peoples of the Ecuadorian rainforest in a wide variety of services which were developed out of a request by the peoples themselves as we work closely with them to meet their needs.
Adopt a Rainforest Elder – Bestowing Honor and Respect
One of our commitments is to provide what assistance we can for the basic daily needs of the Rainforest Elders as well as to honor and respect these resilient people, many of whom were born before contact with the world beyond their rainforest territory. Due to the on-going encroachment of oil companies and loggers, wild game is becoming scarce and is being depleted. Some elders do not have anyone in their immediate family to provide for them and must rely on extended family to supply them with food. Many have little or no money for day-to-day necessities such as cooking pots and clothing.
Water and Light Program – Providing Solutions for Basic Needs
With the reality that day to day basic needs of clean water and light are often missing in the remote villages with whom we work, we strive to provide solutions to these basic needs. Most indigenous suffer constantly from internal parasites due to the drinking of unclean or contaminated river water. Likewise, many of the indigenous are without even a single light to help illuminate their path in the dark or to provide light to their homes. To help provide these basic needs, we have partnered with some generous companies that grant us special pricing so that we can provide those who live in the deep jungle with affordable clean water and solar lanterns.
Medical & Vision Clinics – Providing Aid, Developing Skills
With this initiative, our goal is to serve the indigenous peoples by offering medical/vision services and medical/vision training to those who are too remote to travel to receive care. With access to the right resources, medicines and hands-on training, both medical volunteers and the indigenous peoples can learn from one another. We teach the rainforest communities how to improve care for the daily medical and vision needs of their own people. Both traditional and modern medicines are combined to achieve improved health for the community.
Educational Initiatives – To Teach & To Learn
With our organization’s mission always in mind, we strive to find new strategies for dealing with this challenge. Education is something that we take very seriously, and our team is working to make a positive impact. We listen to the indigenous peoples to discover what they desire to learn and then we find ways to meet these requests. Living deep in the rainforest limits the availability of educational opportunities dramatically. Current educational requests include: English language classes, collecting school supplies, small engine repair training and simple triage knowledge.
Eco-Tourism Projects – Helping The Community
At Come to the Rainforest, we are dedicated to stepping up our efforts in addressing this developing opportunity. Creating a sustainable eco-tourism venture is by no means an easy feat, but through cooperation and community empowerment we believe we can facilitate progress in this area. We are always striving to make a difference, and are helping the villages create and promote cultural immersion tourism experiences. By participating on one of these trips, the guest/tourist is directly supporting the tribe’s desire to create their own eco-tourism economy.
Faith-Based Missions – Ministering to Indigenous Believers
One of our long term vision is to see Christian indigenous peoples teach, train, support and minister to other indigenous believers and non-believers. To support this vision we offer Bibles, children’s programs, Bible studies, and minister training to help indigenous believers grow in their faith, and as a result, share their faith with their unbelieving kinsmen.
Can you tell us the story behind how you met your business partner?
I met Carlos Godoy, who is the vice-president of the foundation in 2010 on my original medical mission trip. Carlos was born and raised in Ecuador and is an Ecuadorian citizen as well as American citizen and U.S. veteran, having served in the American Vietnam War. Carlos was the organizational person who put together the medical mission that I participated in. Carlos was the Wings of Hope pilot for Ecuador for 40 years. (Wings of Hope is a Medical Relief & Air Transport (MAT) nonprofit based in St. Louis, Missouri). Carlos has been to every indigenous village which has an airstrip numerous time and is held in high regard by the various tribes.
While I was on the medical mission (August 2010) I spoke with Carlos about how much I wanted to return and to serve the indigenous. He told me about the needs of the indigenous tribes who live in Ecuador and especially about the Achuar and Waorani, He felt they would be welcoming and had that we might be able to help them through funding and development of programs. He encouraged me and offered to help coordinate any trip that I wanted to organize.
With that, I returned in two short months and, together with Carlos, began to serve the Achuar peoples. I returned again and again; and decided to start a 501c3 foundation. Carlos, having been such a tremendous help to me when I didn’t know what I was doing or how to make connections among the tribes, was a logical choice for vice president of Come to the Rainforest!
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
Among the indigenous villages and tribes in the rainforest, news travels quicker than you might imagine. It was important to me and Carlos, my vice president, that Come the Rainforest would have a high level of ethics and honesty when working with the indigenous. We never want to promise something that we cannot help them develop and we never want them to feel inferior in any way. It was and is very important that we listen to them closely, allow them to tell us what they need and want (opposed to us coming in and telling them what we feel they need).
Because we have built a reputation on these principals, we have been welcomed with open arms by the villages and have a long list of invitations to come and visit the various tribes and their people. They tell other villages about us and that we can be trusted. They know that they are loved by us and that above all else we genuinely care about them and their needs.
Although we, due to our funding restrictions, cannot always provide the support they ask for we do what we can to help.
Contact Info:
- Website: Cometotherainforest.org
- Instagram: @Cometotherainforest
- Facebook: facebook.com/comeotherainforest