by Len Lear

Members of the Chestnut Hill Rotary Club may have still been in Philadelphia on June 20, but they were able to travel deep into the Amazon rainforest of Ecuador and Peru vicariously with Yasmin Goodman, a resident of Chestnut Hill for 22 years, to one of the most biodiverse regions of the word and meet the Achuar. These are an indigenous people who possess a deep knowledge of the spirit of the jungle, a collective wisdom and traditions that remain unbroken, passed down from generation to generation for thousands of years.

“As guardians of this knowledge, their desire is to share it with any and all who hear the call of Mother Earth," Goodman said.

This rare and pristine part of the world is one of the very few that remain untouched by exploitation by oil companies, copper and diamond mine owners, indiscriminate killers of wildlife and other human predators because the Achuar people have been actively and effectively fighting to protect it for everyone. Their territory sits at what is called the sacred headwaters of the Amazon, where the Amazon River is born.

The Pachamama Alliance, in partnership with other organizations like Amazon Watch and the indigenous communities, are working to create permanent protection of these sacred headwaters. Arkan Lashwala, an indigenous healer and partner of The Pachamama Alliance, says protecting this area “is an invitation to start something new in the exact place where one of the earth’s largest rivers, the Amazon, was born, a place to give birth to a new culture where humans don’t have to damage the earth in order to promote prosperity for ourselves.”

Goodman, who has visited and befriended the Achuar people, said in a recent interview with the Local, “I am glad people will read in the Local about the amazing Achuar people, whose courageous warrior spirit is dedicated to protecting the pristine rainforest on behalf of us all, and the deeply spiritual Sápara people whose commitment to sharing their wisdom of the healing power of the forest with all who come to visit. I am grateful for this opportunity to share their vision/our vision for a just and sustainable world for all.”

Professionally, Goodman owns her own company, Organizer At Last!, providing organizing services in people’s homes and small businesses. She put on another presentation for the Chestnut Hill Rotary Club two years ago called “Organizing On A Dime.” As a professional organizer, Goodman was invited to join the Philadelphia Hoarding Task Force in 2014, a coalition that seeks to improve outcomes for the people who hoard and to reduce the catastrophic consequences related to hoarding.

But her passion has been her activities with The Pachamama Alliance since 2005 and The Hunger Project since 1982. With both organizations, she has traveled the world to remote villages to partner with the indigenous people to create an environmentally sustainable and socially just world for all. She first went to the Amazon rainforest in 2006 for two weeks and then in January, 2018, for three weeks. Last month she went to New Mexico to work with the indigenous people.

“Their teachings provided wonderful opportunities for me to awaken to the beauty of the jungle,” she said. “It is a portal, I now see, that connects us to all of time and to all of life. In this world view, separateness doesn’t exist. Everything is deeply connected and interwoven. In the ceremonies with the shamans, I had a vision of an unbreakable human circle joined together in joyous harmony.”

In addition to the Achuar people, Goodman has visited the Sápara people. “There are only 532 of them left in the world,” she said. “The rubber trade decimated them. We were walking in mud through the rainforest. Their main drink is a fermented drink. Their guts are in great shape compared to those of us who drink soda and coffee. My delegation this year was 18 people from 10 countries. Some people go there on a medicinal plant journey. I skinned my knee, for example, and the women got some plant in the jungle, boiled it in water and treated me. And it worked.”

When asked her age, Goodman said, “That’s not a nice question.” She grew up in West Philly, went to Masterman High School and Girls High School. She earned a degree in biochemistry from Temple University in 1981. “I was always interested in health and well being,” she said, “and I wanted to understand the chemistry of food.” After graduation, she stayed in the exercise physiology world. She was program director for the Main Line WMCA for three years and a part-time fitness instructor for 33 years.

A native of the Amazon rainforest shows some of the unique flora and fauna to a foreign visitor . The natives are trying to protect their fragile home from the corporate interests who have already destroyed so much of the world’s rainforests for profit.[/caption]

Goodman started her own business as a software instructor in the late 1980s. When she was teaching fitness, a software company offered her a job, and she did a lot of software training for 15 years all over the country. The multi-tasker also taught dance at Bryn Mawr College starting in 1999. “I was raised in a conservative family,” she said. “I saw ‘All That Jazz’ and was sobbing when I saw ‘Flashdance.’ I always wanted to dance, and I took classes for three years with a great choreographer, Suzy Miller.”

In 1976, Goodman became a vegetarian. “I read in books that some countries would not eat meat. My dad was a vegetarian, so I felt I could make a difference in the world around the food and hunger issue.”

Goodman has lived in the Hill House for 12 years. Before that she owned a Woodward house. In 1982 she became active with The Hunger Project and traveled widely exploring the hunger issue and the chronic subjugation of women in places like Bangladesh, India and Burkina Faso. She met Lynn Twist, author of “The Soul of Money” who had a private meeting with Mother Teresa. “She connected me to my entire life,” said Goodman. “She gave my money soul."

To learn more about the Pachamama Alliance, click here or here to watch a video about the organization. Len Lear can be reached at lenlear@chestnuthilllocal.com.

TO BE CONTINUED