Behind “Living bridge” are Txana Bane from the Huni Kuin people and Kathy Makuani from Germany, as well as their children Linda Bismani and Milan Tene.
The family lives in Wendland (D) and in the Brazilian jungle (Acre).
Since 2012 they have been working to connect these two worlds.
Friends and families have supported the project and made the foundation of the association possible.

The close cultural exchange gives us the opportunity to get to know the ways of life of the other culture and to learn from each other.
We meet each other as people: appreciative and open. This is the only way we can strengthen each other and live sustainably.

We believe that respectful coexistence always means living with responsibility for the future of the earth.

Txana Bane is part of a Huni Kuin chieftain family from Jordao, near the Peruvian border. At the age of eleven, his father, Chief Siã, brought him and his brothers to Rio Branco to familiarise them with life in the city. Over time, a network developed there, through which Txana travelled to Europe for the first time in 2005.

He now lives as an ambassador for his community and gives the indigenous people a powerful voice in the West. Txana founded the Living Bridge association to give the connection between the cultures a formal framework.

Today, the brothers take on the role of chief together. Txana's brother Yawa Bane is currently running for the office of deputy mayor in Jordao in order to give his people an official political voice.

Kathy Makuani is a qualified naturopath and founder of Living Bridge.
But she has seen herself as a bridge-builder for a long time: born in Greifswald in 1985, she was too young to be socialised in East Germany. She grew up near Kiel, in the West, but in an East German family. And even if the German province differs in many ways from the Brazilian Amazon, the laws of nature are the same, including the feeling of connection to nature.
Kathy lives with her family in Wendland for part of the year and in the jungle for the other. There she works primarily with the women.

The aim is to strengthen each other, to search for the strength that is already inherent in the cultures. Ultimately, this ‘empowerment’ also means progress for the men.