What we do
At the Foundation, we are dedicated to the safeguarding and strengthening of Colombia's 65 indigenous languages, focusing our efforts on the younger generations. We firmly believe that linguistic revitalization begins in childhood, where words take root with the greatest strength. Our main work focuses on weaving bridges between the memory of the elders and the hearts of children. We gather oral histories from the territories and transform them into illustrated, educational children's stories written in their native languages. Through children's literature and origin stories, we give boys and girls back the right to read, dream, and name the world from the voice of their own ancestors, ensuring that territorial knowledge and indigenous thought remain alive.
How it was born
The Foundation was born from a profound encounter with the word and the territory in the Colombian Amazon. Its founder, Iván Enrique, consolidated this commitment during his research in the Master's in Amazonian Studies at the Universidad Nacional de Colombia, where he worked closely with communities and focused his interest on the linguistic and cultural wealth of the Uitoto Murui and Tikuna peoples. After completing his doctoral studies in Mexico and returning to the country with the firm conviction that academic knowledge must return to communities, Iván decided to launch this space for the active preservation of native languages. The foundation's journey materialized in 2024 with its first major achievement: the creation and publication of the children's audiobook Mi Pueblo Murui, a project woven with the fundamental support of Martha, an indigenous Uitoto Murui leader, and the cacique elders of her community. This first milestone marked the direction of our mission: to transform the oral memory of the elders into living stories for childhood.
Multimedia: Audiolibro en Línea
Who we are
We are a non-profit organization founded in the city of Barranquilla in 2017 by Iván Enrique Carroll Janer, PhD in Social Anthropology from the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia (ENAH) in Mexico City. His wife, Eliana Peña Hoyos, a pediatric infectologist from the Universidad del Valle, actively supports the foundation's work out of her deep interest in working with the country's children. Dedicated to the defense, research, and revitalization of the native languages and cultural heritage of Colombia's indigenous peoples, our foundation bridges rigorous academic knowledge with community action in the territories. Through an interdisciplinary perspective that balances environmental, social, and cultural dimensions, we work closely with community leaders and elders to create pedagogical tools, document traditional knowledge, and strengthen community identity.