COVID-19 poses a mortal threat to Amazonian indigenous peoples. The Amazon region is currently at the center of one of the worst sanitary crisis ever known and the health system has collapsed in the cities of the region.
We need to take action now to prevent more deaths and protect the riverine communities.
The inhabitants of the Jauaperi river in the Amazon forest need your help!
The Reserve of the lower Branco River and Jauaperi, situated in the northern Brazilian Amazon, is home to 2000 river-dwellers living in 14 villages on the margin of the river, 400 km away from the nearest town. The small villages are isolated and only accessible by boat, with no food shops, no health care services and little or no medications, which makes the inhabitants of the river extremely vulnerable to Covid19.
Most of the river-dwellers live of traditional activities such as fishing, hunting and harvesting but are also dependent from the distant towns of the region that form an essential network of exchanges.
Due to the global pandemic, they are trying to reduce the movements to the cities to a minimum, staying home in the forest to avoid the spread of the Covid19 to the villages. The communities have already taken steps to protect themselves and no outsider is allowed in the national reserve of the Jauaperi river.
For the villagers, reducing travels to the city means the impossibility to access food essentials that usually complete a basic diet made of fish, game meat and cassava flour.
The shortage of food is a real issue that can compromise a tentative of self-isolation and endanger an entire population with children, pregnant women, elderly and vulnerable people.
In 2020, since the beginning of Covid19 emergency in Brazil, we have focused all our actions in one direction: to protect the inhabitants of the Extractive Reserve of the lower Rio Branco Jauaperi from the Coronavirus.
Port of Manaus during the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, in Manaus, Brazil, April 4, 2020. REUTERS/Bruno Kelly
In 2020 we delivered 26 tons of supplies, food and medicines to over 200 families for a direct cost of £20,000.
To date, this enormous joint effort has helped to avoid the worst by containing the spread of infection in the federal reserve.
But today, a surge of infections in the region made us renew our effort to protect the people of the RESEX, to support and stand by them during this difficult time.
With a donation of £45 you guarantee enough food to a family of river-dweller for a month.
They need your help for the success of this logistical challenge: to organize the transport of food as well as cleaning products, fishing material and fuel for emergencies, by boat, to the villages along the river.
The Certeza boat, owned by one of the village's local cooperative, is ready to go and fulfill its mission to carry enough food for 200 families from Novo Airão to the remote villages of the Jauaperi river, 400 km away. The travel on the tributary of the Amazon river takes about 20 hours.
Amazon Charitable Trust and Amazônia Onlus are two NGO’s that have a long-lasting relationship with the villages and are supporting the joint effort of the river-dwellers of the Jauaperi by relaying the indigenous people demands in response to the Coronavirus Pandemic.
The money that we are able to fundraise will be entirely dedicated to support the families of the Resex of the lower Rio Branco - Jauaperi in this critical time.