LMU Alumna Sylvia Ciborowski Helps Tribe in Peru on a Fulbright Scholarship

Sylvia Ciborowski’s, who graduated in 2005, initial goal upon receiving a 2007 Fulbright Scholarship was to study environmental policies in Peru’s logging, mining, oil and gas industries. But after a couple of weeks in Peru, when she visited the Achuars and decided that the indigenous tribe was being exploited by the oil industry, she realized her research needed a new focus.

“I was outraged that these oil companies that have been operating with little or no regulations since the 70’s and have been harming the land and the people,” Ciborowski said. “I knew something had to be done.”

The Achuar tribe lives in the Amazon rain forest in northeast Peru. The area is under constant threat from oil spills or contamination, which are usually the result of an industrial accident. Ciborowski teamed up with two NGOs, Shinai and Racimos de Ungurahui, to train 12 members of the tribe to systemically monitor the area for oil spills and contamination and to keep records of the monitoring. If violations occur, the information will be delivered to the government or the press, and it can be used in trial if a lawsuit is filed. Ciborowski is impressed with the work that is being done, but she says the solution doesn’t stop there.

“When we leave, the Achuars will hopefully have the capacity to take care of themselves and sustain the community on their own,” Ciborowski said. “But Peru needs to have stronger government and corporate accountability with their environmental policies.”

The training of monitors was so successful that Shinai and Racimos de Ungurahui offered to extend Ciborowski’s work contract for three more months to continue the work and to gain more attention to the tribe’s situation.

Ciborowski says that a lot of the skills she uses in Peru were learned at LMU. She was active in the Human Rights Coalition, where she learned how to plan large events and organize people. Also, the research from her senior thesis provided her with the latest information on international environmental policies. She also says that attending LMU in the first place was made easier through the assistance of an academic scholarship.

“Receiving the scholarship definitely decreased the financial strain my parents and I had to deal with,” Ciborowski said.

Ciborowski is working collaboratively with other members of Shinai on a book about the Achuar and oil exploitation in Peru that is scheduled to be published this coming December. She also has been accepted into NYU’s School of Law for fall 2008.

“Sylvia has surprised me again and again with the range of her accomplishments and the fearlessness with which she embraces challenges,” said Kathleen Harris, director of LMU’s national and international scholarship office. “I can’t wait to see what she does next.”