Hato Rincón, Panama

The Ngäbe-Buglé are an indigenous group in Central America that live in remote mountain communities throughout Western Panama. Because the Ngäbe-Buglé have historically been marginalized, they lack basic infrastructure and have few planned development projects. Moreover, economic, environmental, and political pressures have eroded their indigenous way of life. The unique Ngäbe-Buglé culture is rapidly disappearing and in danger of being lost forever.

The Jädeberi corregimiento is located in the southern part of the Ngäbe-Buglé territory, which comprises thirteen hamlets with an estimated population of 2,000 residents. Hato Rincón, as the administrative head of this territory, is one of the larger ones. They have organized themselves to address some of their challenges, including potable water and sanitation. Although Rincón houses both a primary and secondary school, its students do not have the educational resources to compete nationally.

The Need

The community of Rincón contacted EWB-USA to help address the inequality of educational preparation and lack of information, preserve their culture, and present themselves to the world. When their students go to college (like US high schools) and then university, they are behind their peers in computer literacy. Adults going to jobs throughout Panama do not have information economy skills. They need to valid medical and basic How-to information other Panamanians have access too. They want the ability to tell their own story and show their own production to the world.

The Solution

After several community meetings, assessments, and discussions, people decided to build an Educational Resources Center in Rincon, named CREER. EWB-DC partnered in this initiative on the technical design, project implementation, and fundraising. The design of the community center, computer lab, and library is based on the requirements of the Panamanian program, Info Plaza, for creating computer centers throughout Panama and the knowledge of the residents on the territory, weather and cultural use of the land. All these conversations took place in the field with the help of a community mobilizer who serves as a facilitator and cultural mediator between the community and the EWB-DC team for the CREER project.

The community members plan to use the computers to document their indigenous language and culture, apply for government services, and access better health care information, including telemedicine. Throughout the project, they have supported development with local resources and knowledge, including labor, wood, sand, tools, and expertise in masonry. The community got an education department’s workforce development program involved. The local students in this program use the construction as a practical learning classroom, directed by Panamanian instructors and supported by EWB-DC engineers.

Progress

The project team has completed approximately ten trips since the project’s inception in 2014. In previous implementation trips, volunteers and community members have excavated and removed boulders from the building site, placed and reinforced concrete foundations and slabs, completed confined masonry walls at the building perimeter, fabricated and erected steel roof trusses, and completed the corrugated metal roof. The team made a lot of progress during the summer of 2019. EWB-DC spent a total of 4 weeks in the community and sent 22 volunteers who advanced the building from a concrete slab to an enclosed structure, completing the structure was to safe and protected state. When COVID shut down travel and paused construction, the community members had an enclosed building to store food and supplies to aid in weathering the COVID storm and as an overflow classroom for their students who could not travel. The EWB-DC team finally returned to Rincon in October 2022 to assess the structure after three years of operation and completed the front porch slab and roof construction. In January and June 2023, the community, Workforce students, and EWB team finished the structure’s windows and door installation, built furniture, installed gutters and security bars on windows, painted the structure, and turned over a functional library! During the trip in June 2023, the first class of Workforce students held their first graduation in their new library. The community chose librarians, and they got to work preparing and setting up business.

What’s Next

The building still needs to be fully powered. The Electrical Project is finalizing the solar PV system based on the community’s needs. Now that they have the structure to make decisions. We plan on implementing the electrical design in Summer 2024 to give the community time to consider their needs. EWB-DC will be preparing the technical design and fundraising.

Get Involved

Email panama@ewb-dc.org to get involved. Travel is planned for the Summer of 2024, and we are looking for people interested in traveling to the community to complete the years-long implementation of this project. We are in need of electrical engineers familiar with off-the-grid solar to assist in the design and installation of the future solar power system.