COOL EARTH – FEBRUARY

The most dreaded of days is nearly upon us. Valentine’s Day. We can hear the collective gasp of horror. But this year we’re ditching the garage flowers and cheap chocolates in favour of something much more romantic – jewellery made with love by the AMARNO cooperative in Peru. As well as being the thing to wear this February – and Vivienne Westwood agrees with us – it also provides an income for 45 families and safeguards the future of the rainforest. Now that’s something even us singletons can get excited about.
Best wishes from all at Cool Earth.

THE RAINFOREST SHAMAN

Each month, we’ll be introducing you to the incredible people behind Cool Earth’s projects. The people who, without your support, would have lost their homes to the loggers.
This February, meet Noemi Lopez Camashiri.
Noemi is from the village of Tinkareni in Cool Earth’s Ashaninka Project in Peru. She is the oldest woman in the project, as well as the most respected elder in the community. She is the community’s sheripiari – the Ashaninka word for shaman.
“I live here, this is my house in Tinkareni, this is my forest, my community. I was born here and I’ve lived here ever since – I belong to the community of Tinkareni. I love living here, the forest provides me with all I have. It feeds me and provides clean air that comes towards me and gives me life. For me, the forest is everything.” Noemi Lopez
Sheripiari actually means ‘tobacco eater’, which is the most important medicine for the Ashaninka. Noemi chews the leaves to help control visions and also blows the leaves on sick patients to cure them of many ailments.
For the Ashaninka, shamans act as mediators between the visible and the invisible worlds. The community believe that only the shamans can save someone inflicted with the trauma caused by a vision of peyari – the body of a dead person wandering on earth, separated from its spirit.
Noemi has even performed a spiritual healing on our very own Vivienne Westwood on her trip to the rainforest with Cool Earth. Watch the healing video below.