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The primary mission of our non-profit organization is to offer assistance to the Matsés
indigenous communities so that this native Amazonian tribe can conserve their
native culture and indigenous communal reserve in a sustainable and autonomous manner.
MATSES is
distinctive in that it is the first non-profit organization whose members are
from the Matsés tribe itself rather than being controlled by outsiders. In
the past, other
NGOs composed entirely of non-natives acted as self-appointed representatives
for the
Matsés tribe with few benefits to the Matsés people. It is our belief
that with education and
experience, the Matsés nation is capable of determining its own future,
independent of the wishes and interests of outsiders. The Movement
in the Amazon for Tribal Subsistence and Economic
Sustainability (MATSES) is an
organization of the Matsés tribe offering assistance to the Matsés people.
The origins of
MATSES can be traced to a grass-roots movement by the Matsés people.
To understand how MATSES came about in the first place, you need to
understand the present situation of the Matsés tribe. There are seventeen
different communities within the Matsés Native Community in the Amazon Rainforest and living conditions
are much the same as they were before the Matsés tribe made permanent contact
with the outside world in 1969. There are no phones, no public
transportation, and no governmental projects of any kind there. No medical or
other aid is being provided by the Peruvian government. Incredibly, there
is not a single health care professional present in the entire indigenous
reserve. The only thing that could be remotely interpreted as governmental
aid is the presence of teachers whose salaries are paid by the Peruvian Ministry
of Education. There is little travel by the Matsés outside the reserve.
However each year in January, the teachers are brought to Iquitos by the
Ministry of Education where they take classes on bilingual education. It
is from the teachers that our organization was formed. MATSES is
truly a grass-roots organization in that the Matsés people themselves formed
this organization through the participation of their teachers.
The Movement
in the Amazon for Tribal Subsistence and Economic
Sustainability (MATSES) is a non-profit tax-exempt
organization situated in the Peruvian Amazon working for the future of the
Matsés indigenous people.
For additional information, please call or write:
MATSES
Iquitos, Peru
Telephone: (+
51-1) 99660-7445
E-mail :
info@matses.org
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