Helena Sarayaku Manta

Helena is 17 years old and studies in Finland. She spends her vacation time cultivating her love for her roots by visiting her relatives in Ecuador. Her father is Swedish and her mother is a native Kichwa from the village of Sarayaku, in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon. On her last trip to Ecuador she met with leaders of her people who asked her to take a message out of the country: “Kawsak Sacha – Living Jungle”, an innovative proposal regarding protection and conservation, in which the jungle is considered a living being.

The town holds a traditional cultural festival called Uyantza Raymi in which she actively participates. While the news announces that a virus called COVID-19 is affecting the world, she is caught unawares in the nearest city in the region, Puyo, where she is confined. From there she learns on the news that 80 percent of her village has been infected by COVID-19 and that a great overflow of the Bobonaza River flooded part of her village, a natural phenomenon that according to the great ones “had never been seen before in the history of the village”. She is Helena of Sarayaku!