December 23, 2020
Teobaldo Rengifo Cachique is the current lieutenant governor of La Perla de Zanja Seca. When we arrived to talk to him, he greeted us with a rolling machine from Ocho Sur that had been carrying out maintenance work on its main access road to Nueva Requena.
Teobaldo, when asked about the actions he carries out with Grupo Ocho Sur, points out without hesitation: “Since Ocho Sur entered, they have supported us in the Zanja Seca Caserío. All our streets are gravel thanks to Ocho Sur; Before, to leave, we had to do it through Nuevo Piura by boat.”
In addition, Teobaldo explained the benefits of the highway. “When Ocho Sur fixed the road, we left our boats and bought our motocars. Now we walk on the road, this has benefited us all, we enter our farms with our motorcycles. In winter, on the roads, whether it rains or not, you just drive, before you couldn’t even get out with a Kubota, that’s how it was.”
At Ocho Sur, as part of our social responsibility, we understand that work on road improvement is one of the pillars to benefit the more than 20 neighboring hamlets and communities, both native and mestizo.
Teobaldo remembers how at some point, due to outside pressure, an unsuccessful attempt was made to pit the community of Zanja Seca against Ocho Sur. “On the contrary, our community was going to protest in Pucallpa so that Ocho Sur would stay; we saw how the town emerged with a company that is at its side.”
The work with our neighbors is constant and this is recognized by Teobaldo. “The company continues to support us, we have to build a school and they are going to help us by leveling two hectares, filling in and they are going to give us all the material so that we can provide the labor.”
Precisely, this school is one of the projects that, despite the pandemic, continues to advance in Zanja Seca. Then will come the next one: the Communal House.
Members of the Zanja Seca community can also receive emergency medical care within our camps. “We have already done it,” says Teobaldo. “In case of emergencies we go to the topic and it doesn’t cost us anything.” It is true that Zanja Seca has a medical post, but many times it is without health personnel or medicines to attend to emergency cases.
Testimonies like that of Mr. Teobaldo Rengifo demonstrate the work that at Grupo Ocho Sur we permanently carry out with neighboring communities for the constant improvement of their quality of life.
