Yawanawa Initiative 2025: The Story, the Scope, The Details

This sacred offering holds a prayer of raising $30,000+ for the Yawanawá Lineage Preservation Projects unfolding in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest, which include initiatives that involve cacao cultivation, food sovereignty and much more.

We invite you into a meaningful opportunity to get directly involved with a project from start-to-finish, one that will have multigenerational impact on the Amazon rainforest, the indigenous tribes, and the consciousness of humanity as a whole.

The Origins of this Initiative

The seeds for this initiative were officially planted when our Founder Luana (aka Makenzie) was at Mutum Village in Yawanawá Territory last month for KAIRAU Saite to celebrate Tuikuru Yawanawá's completion of one year of the Muká diet (the highest spiritual initiation in the Yawanawá lineage). Luana's alliance with the family at Mutum strengthened while there, and to her surprise, there were many cacao trees on their land in the forest! Without even initiating, multiple people approached Luana throughout the week to potentially assist with the Cacao and other related projects. It was a miraculous week for many reasons. Now, Luana will be returning to Mutum and Centro Awavana for a total of 10 weeks this summer to water the seeds that were planted. This alliance with the Yawanawá is a deep soul calling, and now, we invite the entire KAKAO community to be a part of the blossoming.

 

The Vision

In addition to uplifting the Yawanawá voices and expanding the reach of their healing cultural practices, KAKAO holds the vision of getting the Yawanawá women set up with everything they need to harvest, dry, ferment, roast, stone-grind and package their own blocks of ceremonial cacao. We have a vision of the women getting to taste, feel and connect with the Spirit of Cacao, as we all know how much Cacao can empower and strengthen our hearts. The Yawanawá are spiritually connected to the plants and the entire rainforest, plus they work intimately with the force of Uni (Ayahuasca). There is no doubt that they will quickly remember the ancient plant spirit of Cacao with every ounce of their being, and infuse the most powerful healing energy possible using their light-filled, joy-infused ceremonial protocols and saites (chants/songs/music).  A longer term goal of this initiative is for the village to be able to sell their own ceremonial cacao to the KAKAO community when they are ready, sharing their healing frequency with the world through the vehicle of cacao, adding to the reciprocal ecosystem we are co-creating in this time of great exchange.

 

KAKAO's new fund for improved transparency and community involvement

KAKAO Ceremonial Drinking Chocolate has recently expanded with a sister fund called Rainbow Bridge Ministries 508(c)(1)(A), which was created to distinguish KAKAO's operating expenses/cost of goods from the resources that are reserved strictly for projects on the ground. As you may have seen in Luana's recent newsletter, KAKAO as a 501c3 non profit already makes consistent and significant donations to various projects and causes related to our mission. And now, our organization is being invited to make an even bigger impact. This is why we have created this fund for increased transparency and community involvement. It is indeed rare for a 501c3 non profit to be able to rely on internal revenue/product sales to both operate the organization and give generously to meaningful causes. To not have to rely on outside grants or funding is a beautiful blessing. This is in part due to an efficient operating model where Luana/Makenzie is the only full time team member and still until this day runs the majority of all operations herself Monday through Sunday, including all things ingredient sourcing, imports/exports, production numbers, packaging supply, inventory, finance, spreadsheets, website creation & maintenance, newsletters, customer service, community outreach, on-the-ground relationship building, touring/events, and much more. But above all, it's because of YOUR ongoing orders and support of KAKAO that truly makes all of this possible. HUGE gratitude for your consistent loyalty and sharing with your loved ones. We could not do this without you, and I hope you realize the massive impact we are all having together through the vehicle of KAKAO. THANK YOU!!

 

The Specific Needs For This Project & Beyond

All donations made to the Rainbow Bridge Ministries 501(c)(1)(A) fund will indefinitely and directly go towards project-specific investments, including but not limited to Amazonia regenerative agroforestry consultants, fermentation boxes, stone grinders, molds, proper water supply, indigenous ceremonial/healing work, infrastructure, lineage preservation efforts including events and travel, and anything else needed to empower our indigenous allies in a way that is regenerative and reciprocal. Luana will be documenting as much as possible to bring you along for the ride!* Any funds that are in surplus of what we need for the Yawanawá projects will be distributed based on need to additional projects planned for 2025 onward, including but not limited to KAKAO's collaboration with the Ike/Arhuaco tribe in Colombia and Waroani Tribe in Ecuador. All investment decisions will be made transparent, and wherever possible we will get the community's input to make decisions together along with the Board. Thank you again for being here and for being such a huge part of this heart journey.

 

**Please note, taking videos of indigenous tribes is sensitive and is often not appropriate unless permission is explicitly given, which often requires of years of cultivating a trustworthy relationship. Each tribe has their own protocols and requests, so while we do document as much as possible, the number one priority is to ensure we exude respect and sensitivity to what they are comfortable with and what is appropriate, especially when ceremonies or plant medicines are involved.