SOI SANI SCHOOL

Soi Sani School provides children living in the Amazon with a means to a sustainable and well balanced life that is rich in cultural heritage, health, and sovereignty.  Soi Sani is the first school of its kind and will merge scholastic studies with permaculture, aquaculture and traditional arts, language and culture. This multidimensional education will empower the Shipibo and other indigenous groups to live sustainably and autonomously while providing westerners with an opportunity to study/practice Amazon culture, art and medicine.

Make a Difference TODAY

The link above will take you to the non-profit Arkana Alliance page where you may donate to the school. Make sure we get the money! In the notes section of the donation page please put “Alianza Arkana Soi Sani.”

If you would rather send checks, please write “Soi Sani” in the memo section and send to:

SEE - Arkana Alliance- Soi Sani

22231 Mulholland Hwy, Ste 209

Calabasas, CA 91302

Please feel free to contact us at SoiSanischool@gmail.com

The Problem:

Almost half of Peru's population is indigenous, and their level of educational participation is low. The 1532 Spanish conquest marked the beginning of Spanish rule and devastation for the Indian population of Peru. The conquistadors established missions that converted natives, imposed cultural norms and language (Spanish) and attempted to strip natives of their culture altogether. More recently, oil companies have displaced thousands of natives, forcing many into destitution. It is our goal to provide the Shipibo and other indigenous groups of the Amazon with a means of connecting to the world while preserving their rich heritage.

The Solution:

The Soi Sani school at Puerto Firmeza promotes the teaching and conservation of traditional Shipibo culture and language alongside Peruvian national curriculum. Children are taught useful skills in permaculture and fish farming to provide for their communities. This school is the first of its kind.


Luis is the director and visionary behind the school. Based on his extensive experience of intercultural education, Luis has developed an innovative and impressive vision of how to fully implement a genuinely intercultural education in the school he directs at Puerto Firmeza. In 2007, he decided to be more directly involved in creating a more authentic community-based model of intercultural education, rather than continue his career as a high-level administrator.

Luis´s vision for the school is to provide a Western education that is balanced with a rich teaching of Shipibo culture. A school of this kind  does not currently exist in the Amazon.

This vision represents an imaginative and thorough plan of what a true intercultural education could really mean in practice. Furthermore, it is linked to the production of food for the community and the development of additional income for its members through eco-tourism. 

 The objectives of the intercultural, bilingual school are:

1.     Preserving the mother tongue of the Shipibo language through its teaching and everyday use in the school, alongside the teaching of the traditional culture of the Shipibo people.

2.     Teaching the children traditional techniques in the cultivation and use of medicinal and food plants.

3.     Teaching the children the ways their culture has traditionally and sustainably made use of and worked with important elements of their natural environment such as wood, clay, stones, cotton etc.

4.     Teaching the children traditional methods for the breeding and care of domestic animals and fish farming for food production.

5.     Promoting cultural exchange with other indigenous groups and other schools both inside and outside Peru.

6.     Developing the school as a project to attract national and international eco-tourism.

This will be achieved by the creation of eight distinct educational zones in the school:

·      Zone 1 is the formal entrance to the school, which includes a meeting area in the shape of a traditional Shipibo design and a play area with both western and traditional indigenous games.

·      Zone 2 is a conventional classroom-based building, which contains, four bathrooms, the administrative center of the school, and four classrooms that will focus on the delivery of the Peruvian national curriculum.

·      Zone 3 is comprised of two malocas (traditional healing centers) where the students will receive knowledge of their culture, including its healing traditions and art forms such as traditional dances, from two community elders. Zone 3 also includes space for a small zoo where children will learn to look after traditional pets such as monkeys, birds and snakes, as well as an area for the rearing of chickens.

·      Zone 4 is an ethno-botanical garden of medicinal plants, where the children will learn the traditional healing uses of the different plants from community elders.

·      Zone 5 is where a wide variety of native fruit trees, including those that have almost disappeared, will be cultivated.

·      Zone 6 is a food production area. It consists of a fish farm project where Amazonian species will be farmed that have a high food value and an animal rearing area focusing on breeding species such as turtles, guinea pigs and birds that can be eaten. Special attention will be given to the cultivation of snails, which have a high nutritional value.

·      Zone 7 is based on the cultivation of traditional foods such as yuca, plátano, mani, dale dale, ashipa etc.

·      Zone 8 will be left as wild forest, without further human intervention, which will offer the students an opportunity to appreciate and learn about ecosystems in their natural state as well as provide an excursion area.

      Luis'  five-year plan involves first the creation of the basic infrastructure for these zones in 2011, using a combination of external financial help and local labor. This will be followed by the development of the fish farming and domestic animal rearing area in 2012, the development and expansion of the food production area in 2013, the promotion of products to local, national and international markets in 2014, and its overall evaluation in 2015.