The Need for Urgent, Culturally Appropriate Responses for Indigenous Peoples in the Amazon.
As indigenous people we are the ones at the forefront of the defense of mother earth and the first to suffer the consequences of climate change and pandemias such as COVID-19. This quarantine has given us the opportunity to make it a priority to become more resilient and conscious about the future of our communities wherever this will be.
Our territories are disproportionately vulnerable to disease due to persistent lack of access to food, equal and adequate public services including health care and education. Furthermore, poverty, unemployment, sanitation, and communication technologies constitute barriers that significantly increase the vulnerability of indigenous peoples to various diseases leaving us in desperate need of outside support and assistance.
The coronavirus crisis that we are going through allows us to glimpse the limits of the system that colonialism has brought into our territories. Locally, we were rushed into activating culturally appropriate protocols to contain the spread of the virus into our villages as well as managing adequate medical and food supplies for the most vulnerable. Officially, we have 33 indigenous nations across the Amazon with confirmed cases and 113 and counting deaths. In my region alone, we have 4 confirmed deaths and more than 60 people in quarantine will COVID related symptoms. The work that we are doing doesn't stop here.
Our people, the guardians of the forest, urge creative ways to build short term emergency response as well as long term regenerative and resilient communities in order to overcome this epidemiological and climate crisis and take care of our planet.
We want to encourage you to support our response work:
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You can buy from www.Hakhu.net and 100% of the proceeds from the sales will go towards emergency food supplies in the Napo Area .
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You can donate directly here in our website to support our communities with food, medical supplies and local emergency response needs.
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You can support the Pan-Amazonian Emergency fund that will be distributed between the 9 countries of the Amazon. www.amazonemergencyfund.org
If you want to donate or support in a different way contact: donations@hakhu.org
Please feel free to contact us directly if you are interested in learning about specifics of our response.
OUR TERRITORIES ARE DISPROPORTIONATELY VULNERABLE TO DISEASE
Indigenous peoples – particularly the elders, wisdomkeepers and those living in voluntary isolation – are gravely threatened by the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. So far we have supported 5 villages along the Napo River. Our goal is to reach $15.000 so we can distribute food, medicine and urgent supplies to at least 20 more communities.
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