The Beauty of Umanga Easter Island

                            The Beauty of Umanga

 "The pandemic was a blessing in disguise." Really? That seems a hard thing to say! Prior to the pandemic, Easter Island was "heavily dependent on mainland Chile for food and its 100,000 odd annual tourists for income that it has not needed to function in survival mode."

Now things have changed.  Carlos Edmunds Paoa, president of the island's Council of Elders explained to the BBC's Mark Johanson that the pandemic has helped to "turbocharge a programme that helps to make the island self-sustainable and waste-free by 2030 using umanga."

Umanga? What is that? Umanga is helping others without expecting anything in return, sharing what you have with others, sharing information with those who are unaware, helping someone who is not as strong as you are.

One example of Umanga is "it has been revived as an employment scheme called Pro Empleo Rapa Nui." Another example is that people are now hearing the news in the local language. They are also:  

• working together to help each other to beautify the island, 
• making family vegetable gardens, recycling waste, planning craft fairs to "promote internal exchange" 
• Tour guides are training younger people about the importance of the archaeological sites
• Dive instructors have "scoured the ocean floor to remove two (2) tonnes of rubbish."

Umanga has shown how coronavirus has helped Easter Island to depend less on growing tourism and more on going back to ways of self-sustainability that have been lost over time. Prior to the pandemic people on the island kept "eating and consuming and searching for money....destroying nature and our fragile culture. Now our eyes are open" Edmunds Paoa said. " We are more keen to promote sustainability in words actions and plans than we ever were before."