El Naturalista, ProPerú Continue to Partner on Atauchi Project

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Julie Atherton McFadden
JAM Media
julie@jampr.net
615-292-4240 Office
615-429-7704 Cell

El Naturalista and ProPerú Continue to
Partner on the Successful ATAUCHI PROJECT
Because our kids are the future

Pamplona, Spain — At El Naturalista they understand that one has to do things for the world, look after it, cherish it and protect it. It doesn’t always have to be something grand, but if more people would act locally the change would be global, and therefore El Naturalista started acting!

With this in mind El Naturalista teamed up with ProPerú on the Atauchi Project to help give the children of Peru an education. ProPerú is a non-profit organization that was founded in 1989 in Pamplona, Spain in order to promote the human, social, economic and cultural development of the most depressed zones of the Andean countries.

The ATAUCHI PROJECT covers 3 main points:
• Renovate and equip schools
• Form and educate teachers and pupils
• Establish an electricity supply through solar panels

The partnership began during the Autumn/Winter 2005/2006 season when El Naturalista unveiled the Nasca line at the world’s leading fashion and footwear shows. The Nasca line is inspired by the people, culture and places of Peru and takes its name from the famous prehistoric lines criss-crossing the Pampas of Jumana, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1990.

El Naturalista donates one euro from every pair of Nasca shoes sold in the world to the Atauchi Project and the government of Spain matches each Euro 20 to 1.
ProPerú has used this money, estimated at around €200,000 to date, to continue its program of rebuilding and equipping schools, training teachers and students, and installing solar panels to provide electricity in remote villages in northern Peru. These initiatives form part of an education project focusing primarily on children.

So far, with the help of El Naturalista’s customers and consumers they have built and equipped a school in Chalaco, Peru. The donations generated from the sales of the 2006 collections will be used to help children in Peru once again. This time the focus will be to build a school in Arequipa City. This new school will not only supporting kids who are living in a difficult, poor environment, but also children dealing with much larger issues, kids who are suffering from the Down syndrome as well as for kids who are orphaned or have been abandoned by their parents.

“I found it very hard to accept that in carrying out our day-to-day work we were unable to assist people who need so much help. I’m very grateful to ProPerú for giving me the opportunity to take part in the Atauchi Project, and I’ve now managed to get our entire team (designers, partners, distributors, retail outlets, etc.) involved in it too. I’m hopeful that if we can all pull together, we’ll be able to smash our sales records with the Nasca line,” commented Pablo de la Peña, El Naturalista’s managing director.

“This project represents an excellent opportunity to form a bond with the people who buy El Naturalista’s products, a section of the public with an acute awareness of social issues. As a result of the project, a percentage of the money they spend on a product created with the environment at heart, such as El Naturalista’s footwear, is spent on helping deprived areas to develop. The initiative will help us to reach children all around the world, provide a huge boost for our projects and allow us to test out a company/NPO partnership that, if successful – and the early indications are promising – we can use to launch new projects,” added Sixto Jiménez Muniáin, the president of ProPerú.

The Atauchi Project is embarking on this groundbreaking partnership designed to bring about development through cooperation under two slogans: ProPerú’s “The Sun Will Shine Wherever They Need Us” and El Naturalista’s “Walking for Life”. For more information about this NPO go to www.properu.org.es

The Nasca line continues to grow for Spring 2007 with the addition of the new N020 slip-on shoe style. El Naturalista not only works on the their leathers, soles, dyes and their team – they put all their effort in continuing to work for life, peace, strength and they believe in making a better world.

About El Naturalista:
The brand El Naturalista originates from La Rioja (Spain), a fertile, prosperous land, with artisan shoemakers since ancient days, who know their trade, their quality, and how to strike a healthy balance between tradition and modernity. With this craftsmanship in mind, El Naturalista creates the finest footwear from vegetable tanned leathers, natural and recycled rubber outsoles with comfort and style at the forefront of their designs. Information about El Naturalista and its products can be found at www.elnaturalista.com El Naturalista is distributed in the U.S. by the Ralph Libonati Co. Phone: (800) 437-2526, Email: info@ libonatico.com.