Health system and Covid-19
How did the virus spread?
According to the statistics given by Ojo Publico, in July the Awajún reached the highest rate of people infected by COVID-19 among the tribes in the Peruvian Amazon.
This is probably due to different reasons:
- In spring, there has been an intense migration of people living in other parts of Peru, that came back to their homeplace: young workers, students, and so on. This was mainly due to the pandemic, and to the low job demand in the cities.
- In April, the government decided to provide a voucher to citizens with low income, in order to help people who had suffered economic difficulties.
This bonus was delivered physically to each citizen. But, what was supposed to be a relief for the population, became also a dangerous cause of gathering, generating big crowds in front of the Bancos de la Nación, in which the virus easily spread.
This new virus, brought from the cities, is now heavily affecting this population that cannot rely on a proper health system provided by the State.
Health system with Covid-19
In a setting where it is not easy to keep track of contagion and death rate, as in the Amazon,
covid spread had even more heavy consequences.
The Amazon population is now suffering an important lack of medical health staff, also due to the fact that most of the workers refused to go from the cities to the medical centres into the forest. Hospitals have not enough intensive care places, and no breathing machines at all.
There has been a general lack of information about the COVID-19 among the indigenous populations: people did not receive proper instructions about basic protective measures,
how to deal with the spread and the cure.
The budget is not enough to manage the delivery of medicines to every district,
but neither to transfer most delicate patients to the closer health centre.
Medications are brought from Lima, but not in required amount.
In order to counteract disinformation and to raise awareness among the Amazon population, Radio de Derechos Indígenas and Cultura Survival broadcasted practical information about preventive measures in many indigenous languages.
At the followin button you find the bulletin in Awajún language, recorded and traslated by Wilson Atamain Uwarai.
Extra:
Indigenous populations are now treating themselves with plant-based medicinal knowledge, as an alternative solution to the lack of national health support.
You can read more details in the following section.
Aid and support request
In this tense atmosphere, where medicinal plants are the only available cure, the population feels abandoned by the government.
While also other populations in the Amazon are finding and sharing alternative curative solutions, local institutions and organizations are asking for support.
In a similar way, the internet and social media are very important tools to give voice to the Awajún needs.
The 21 on June, ORPIAN – P (Organización Regional de los Pueblos Indígenas de la Amazonía Norte del Perú) sent an official request to the president Martin Vizcarra, asking for medical support in the Awajún Wampis territory, especially in the province of Condorcanqui and in the Imaza district.
The document is available on the CAAAP website.
You can read more about it clicking on the hyperlink below.
In the one podcast of Forum Solidaridad Peru, we find Santiago Jesus Manuin Mayan, member of the permanent council of the Awajún, explaining us the alarming health situation, specifically in the province of Condorcanqui.
He also condemns the government corruptions, and its indifference towards the indigenous population in this moment of health crisis.
This Podcast is available on Spotify at the following link.
Extra and social media:
We think it is important to share information about this topic as much as possible, in order to bring it to the national executive power, and so to the public opinion.
For this reason, we decided to dedicate the following section to social media pages actively engaging with the Awajún fight for their rights.
The leaders’ death and the loss of traditions
"Our sages are leaving us"
The death of the Peruvian indigenous leader Santiago Manuin Valera, caused by the Covid-19 has highlighted the difficulties indigenous people face in accessing health care facilities, especially nowadays, due to the pandemia Covid-19.
Manuin Valera was a man of 63 years old and a member of the Awajún community who was best known to be the “protector of the Peruvian Amazon" for his position of rejecting the sale of these territories to multinationals, as well as for his complaints about the abandonment of the State by the original communities. In 1994 he received the Reina Sofía Prize for his work and, in 2014, the National Human Rights Award.
Valera’s death shocked the Awajún community as well as other important exponents of the Amazon area, such as Zebelio Kayap, the coordinator of the 'Cenepa Border Community Organisation (Odecofroc) who expressed the dramatic effects the virus is having on the community’s sages.
Valera in fact was not the only leader to die during this epidemic. During an interview with the Mongabay Latam, Zebelio Kayap reported:
"Our elders, sages and grandparents are leaving us and governments are not intervening despite the constant complaints and requests for help that have been issued. If we do not take urgent measures, we are on the verge of ethnocide".
The spread of Covid-19 is having serious consequences for the world population, affecting drastically the oldest. However, the concern of these indigenous communities is that their rich historical and cultural heritage is at risk of extinction and may disappear, if those who are its forefathers, leaders, and those who protect and preserve the community die.
In fact, the wisdom of the indigenous ancestors is based not only on passing on cults and traditions but also in the land’s knowledge as well as in the protection of nature and biodiversity. The care of the territory is fundamental for the Awajún population, especially because it represents the place containing the resources keeping them alive.
In addition, it is important to point out that Valera’s death, as well as the death of the other leaders of the community, caused a great outcry not only because he represented a spiritual guide as well as a great ancestor for his community, but because is death was strictly related to the lack of adequate medical measures and equipment. As reported by Wrays Pérez, president of the autonomous territorial government of the Wampis nation “In Condorcanqui there are not even the minimum conditions to attend this pandemic".
Moreover, the Wapis leader affirmed: “It is the indifference and neglect of the government. A historical debt that the State owes us. We are about to celebrate 200 years of independence, but the government does nothing for the people of the Amazon border,” Pérez says of the Wampis people. (Mongabay 2020)
The anger of the Awajún over the death of its dearest leaders is directed against the Peruvian government which has not taken timely measures to counter the spread of the virus, although it was aware of its rapid spread.
For the Awajún people this was just another demonstration of how little importance it has in the Peruvian State; indigenous communities are constantly victims of large social gaps which the pandemic has only widened.
In this regard, the Inter-Ethnic Association for the Development of the Peruvian Jungle (AIDESEP), spokesman for the indigenous peoples of the Amazon, recently lodged an ethnocide complaint against the Peruvian State for its responsibility in the lack of protection of the Amazon in general, and specifically for the lack of adequate measures to address the spread of the COVID-19. (Mocicc 2020)
The death of wise men and women is not only a terrible loss for indigenous people, but for all the world.
These people are custodians of ancestral knowledge about nature and ecosystem’s protection;
a knowledge that nowadays is fundamental.
Moreover, as stated by Lizardo Cauper (President of Aidesep): "for indigenous people losing a leader is like losing a library”
Main sources
Red Investigativa Regional, Covid-19 en la Amazonía: Awajún y Kichwa son los pueblos indígenas más afectados, OjoPublico, © 2020 OjoPublico, https://ojo-publico.com/ .
Cartilla de Información - 01 Julio 2020, Situación actual de Covid-19 en el territorio ancestral de los pueblos Awajún y Wampis, Forum Solidaridad Perú, http://www.psf.org.pe/institucional/ .
ORPIAN-P clama ayuda a Vizcarra: “Ya tenemos nueve awajún fallecidos, nos declaramos en emergencia y pedimos auxilio”, Centro Amazónico de Antropología y Aplicación Práctica, © 2020 CAAAP, https://www.caaap.org.pe/ .
Yvette Sierra Praeli, Latinoamérica: pueblos indígenas cierran sus territorios frente al avance del coronavirus, Mongabay Latam, © 2020 Copyright Noticias ambientales, https://es.mongabay.com/ .
Pueblos Awajún y Wampis denuncian contagio masivo en cinco cuencas, Servindi, https://www.servindi.org/ .
Silvia Romio, Necropolitica: historia de la compleja relación entre Amazonia peruana, epidemias y salud pública, Revista Ideele, https://www.revistaideele.com/ .
Podcast Forum Solidaridad Peru, ep. Alerta 2, https://open.spotify.com/show/5csJ8hXH82TqH0ibAUxOWK.
Gli indigeni peruviani: "Se non si prendono misure urgenti, siamo alla porta di un etnocidio", L'antidiplomatico, liberi di svelarvi il mondo, https://www.lantidiplomatico.it/.
Yvette Sierra Praeli, ‘It’s taking away our wise men’: COVID-19 hits Peru’s Indigenous people hard, Mongabay Latam, © 2020 Copyright Conservation news, https://es.mongabay.com/ .
Cultura en duelo: los sabios y líderes indígenas que el COVID-19 se está llevando, SPDA Actualidad Ambiental, https://www.actualidadambiental.pe/.
El Estado debe responder ante las muertes de los sabios y sabias del pueblo awajún, © 2018 | MOCICC - Movimiento Ciudadano frente al Cambio Climático
Cultura Sirvival, CORONAVIRUS Idioma Awajún, Prevención y Cuidado, 2020,
recorded by Wilson Atamain Uwarai, https://soundcloud.com/ .