Shipibo-Konibo Amazon COVID-19 Emergency
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Miguel Hilario-Manenima has been a good friend of our family since 2017. Today his community is being overwhelmed by COVID-19. The Shipibo-Konibo Indigenous nation of 30,000 people in Peru has already endured centuries of disease and genocide. Their nearest town, Pucallpa, has now become a centre for COVID-19 in the Amazon, and it is already reaching their remote villages. Here is an ITV article that came out on Friday , including an interview with Miguel.
Miguel is the first Shipibo-Konibo with a PhD (in Anthropology from Stanford). He is now in Pucallpa and has tragically already lost several of his family members. He is mobilising a team of indigenous nurses and volunteers to assist people in their homes by providing them with basic medication, food and oxygen. We know that he’ll manage the funds well and that they’ll go a long way.
Please join us in urgently supporting him and his volunteers to protect some of the most vulnerable people being ravaged by this global pandemic.
Here's Miguel's appeal:
COVID-19 EMERGENCY FUND FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
Dear Friends
I am writing to you from the Amazon city of Pucallpa, with sadness and with very heavy heart, as I am burying close relatives, seeing people bury their dead and hearing the passing away of my relatives in different communities along the Ucayali River, the main tributary of the Amazon River.
On May 9th, 30 hours away by boat, from Pucallpa, my uncle Francisco Cardenas (my dad's first blood cousin) was buried. The next day, we buried my uncle Jose Gomez (my mom's brother) in a nearby village. Two days later, on May 12, we buried another uncle, Silvio Valles, (my mom's cousin) who was a mayor from the town of Masisea. The next day, Arturo Hoyos (my dad's first blood cousin) was buried in another village.
They all died with symptoms of covid-19. The only person whose death was officially registered and counted as caused by the deadly virus was my late uncle Silvio Valles--he was a public official. But my relatives, as well as, countless other people in the Amazon are simply not counted officially—they are buried underneath the statistical radar. There is no any contingency plan, or medical care by government's health providers.
My people are simply excluded by the precarious health system. Moreover, the entire 3 public hospitals in the city of Pucallpa have collapsed including the private clinics. For example, we took my uncle Jose Gomez to the ER--private clinic-to seek oxygen, but he was not admitted at all. Then, we took him to a public hospital--there, he was also rejected. He died hours later. There is shortage of oxygen and there were only 10 artificial ventilators for the population of 500,000 a month ago. I am desperate, so are the people everywhere that I talk to.
The Shipibo-Konibo indigenous nation is around 30,000 people, located in 200 villages approximately along the Ucayali River. The pandemic has arrived not only in the city of Pucallpa but is sweeping across the entire indigenous communities. There are no remote villages anymore, there is no plan, there are no medication, no masks, no ventilators and no food. In a nearby village of Bena Jema, most of the 750 families are infected where people are dying every day.
Furthermore, 80 % of the almost 2,000 Shipibo-Konibos living in the city of Lima--Canta Gallo community are infected. Many of them are returning by combination of walking and getting a ride in food trucks back to Pucallpa, and then to their villages. There is no control and quarantine for these people who are already exacerbating the infected communities.
Since, the health system has collapsed in Pucallpa, people are dying due to lack of oxygen and lack of basic medication. I have put together a team of indigenous nurses and volunteers to assist people in their homes providing them with basic medication, food and oxygens. We plan to provide these services in the villages as well.
So, I desperately ask your consideration to help me help my people. We need to buy basic food, oxygen and essential medications. Please pray for us all.
Thank you very much. May God bless us and protect us all.
Miguel W. Hilario Escobar, Ph.D.
Professor, National Intercultural University of the Amazon-Peru
--------
note from the Taylor family: we're in Rome but we are using a US based bank account
Miguel is the first Shipibo-Konibo with a PhD (in Anthropology from Stanford). He is now in Pucallpa and has tragically already lost several of his family members. He is mobilising a team of indigenous nurses and volunteers to assist people in their homes by providing them with basic medication, food and oxygen. We know that he’ll manage the funds well and that they’ll go a long way.
Please join us in urgently supporting him and his volunteers to protect some of the most vulnerable people being ravaged by this global pandemic.
Here's Miguel's appeal:
COVID-19 EMERGENCY FUND FOR INDIGENOUS PEOPLES IN THE PERUVIAN AMAZON
Dear Friends
I am writing to you from the Amazon city of Pucallpa, with sadness and with very heavy heart, as I am burying close relatives, seeing people bury their dead and hearing the passing away of my relatives in different communities along the Ucayali River, the main tributary of the Amazon River.
On May 9th, 30 hours away by boat, from Pucallpa, my uncle Francisco Cardenas (my dad's first blood cousin) was buried. The next day, we buried my uncle Jose Gomez (my mom's brother) in a nearby village. Two days later, on May 12, we buried another uncle, Silvio Valles, (my mom's cousin) who was a mayor from the town of Masisea. The next day, Arturo Hoyos (my dad's first blood cousin) was buried in another village.
They all died with symptoms of covid-19. The only person whose death was officially registered and counted as caused by the deadly virus was my late uncle Silvio Valles--he was a public official. But my relatives, as well as, countless other people in the Amazon are simply not counted officially—they are buried underneath the statistical radar. There is no any contingency plan, or medical care by government's health providers.
My people are simply excluded by the precarious health system. Moreover, the entire 3 public hospitals in the city of Pucallpa have collapsed including the private clinics. For example, we took my uncle Jose Gomez to the ER--private clinic-to seek oxygen, but he was not admitted at all. Then, we took him to a public hospital--there, he was also rejected. He died hours later. There is shortage of oxygen and there were only 10 artificial ventilators for the population of 500,000 a month ago. I am desperate, so are the people everywhere that I talk to.
The Shipibo-Konibo indigenous nation is around 30,000 people, located in 200 villages approximately along the Ucayali River. The pandemic has arrived not only in the city of Pucallpa but is sweeping across the entire indigenous communities. There are no remote villages anymore, there is no plan, there are no medication, no masks, no ventilators and no food. In a nearby village of Bena Jema, most of the 750 families are infected where people are dying every day.
Furthermore, 80 % of the almost 2,000 Shipibo-Konibos living in the city of Lima--Canta Gallo community are infected. Many of them are returning by combination of walking and getting a ride in food trucks back to Pucallpa, and then to their villages. There is no control and quarantine for these people who are already exacerbating the infected communities.
Since, the health system has collapsed in Pucallpa, people are dying due to lack of oxygen and lack of basic medication. I have put together a team of indigenous nurses and volunteers to assist people in their homes providing them with basic medication, food and oxygens. We plan to provide these services in the villages as well.
So, I desperately ask your consideration to help me help my people. We need to buy basic food, oxygen and essential medications. Please pray for us all.
Thank you very much. May God bless us and protect us all.
Miguel W. Hilario Escobar, Ph.D.
Professor, National Intercultural University of the Amazon-Peru
--------
note from the Taylor family: we're in Rome but we are using a US based bank account
Organizer and beneficiary
Taylor Family
Organizer
New York, NY
miguel hilario
Beneficiary