Support the Yanomami Tribe's Fight Against Malnutrition

Welcome & Thank YOU for being HERE!

My name is Dr. Samarpan Brandon Buchalter and I am the creator of the Yanomami Healthcare Sovereignty Project. I’ve been living and working in the Brazilian Amazon Rainforest intermittently for over a decade now and three years ago, I was asked by the Yanomami People, a recently contacted indigenous tribe, to help create a solution for the malnutrition crises plaguing their communities.

This fundraising campaign is to do just that! We need YOUR help for my team to be able to fund our upcoming expedition in July 2024 to attend a yearly summit of the nine Yanomami communities in the Upper Rio Negro region of Brazil. Your donation would allow us to provide vital medications, food, and other resources to the community while collaboratively strategizing with leadership to implement the next phases of our project.

Your donation will directly support these vital aspects of our project including but not limited to:

- Purchasing medications needed desperately by the remote healthcare bases in the jungle to help with medical emergencies, acute malnutrition, parasite infections, malaria, and other diseases/illnesses plaguing the community.

- Food/transport for the Yanomami leaders and community members making the long voyage to attend this annual meeting which is critical to their survival.

- Logistical support to help secure planes, trucks, boats, and the fuel necessary to complete the multiple phases of travel necessary to arrive in the Yanomami Territory.

- Infrastructural development for our project to ensure our ability to fund future trips and continue to build positive momentum in our efforts to best serve the Yanomami.

How you can help:

- Your monetary donation will make this next trip possible for my team and I which is a critical step in ensuring the success of our project and make future trips a reality!

- Sharing this campaign will undoubtedly help grow support and raise more funds/expand awareness of our mission.

- You can attend our upcoming fundraising benefit concert “The JAMazon Jungle JAMboree” on July 11th at the Handlebar in Pensacola, Florida from 6:00-10:00pm to meet me (Dr. Buchalter), witness a perspective shifting presentation on my story of how this project came to be and how its developing, enjoy incredible local musicians/comedians/artists, and support local artisans selling handcrafted goods. All ticket sales go to directly fund the project! Click the link to purchase your ticket now!

- In your everyday life, you can reduce or eliminate your consumption of gold. The demand for this metal is driving the demand for illegal mining of the Yanomami land. If gold prices were to drop, the mining would decrease drastically!

- Follow me on social media (Facebook/[email redacted]royoga) to support the cause and share posts/updates as they unfold!

Why are the Yanomami malnourished?

- Contact with missionaries, Brazilian military, deceptive governmental welfare programs, and drug traffickers have increased leading to the introduction and continuous exposure to processed foods, drugs, and alcohol. This has destroyed their traditional food systems and has led to a degradation of their agricultural/hunting/cultural practices.

- These influences have degraded the quality of women’s health, making it difficult for new mothers to breast feed, resulting in a continuous cycle of malnourished women birthing malnourished children, leading to a more malnourished community, etc.

- Improper waste/sewage management in the communities has resulted in increased exposure to parasites resulting in catastrophic infection rates, especially amongst children.

- The Yanomami territory is under siege by thousands of illegal gold miners in an unprecedented way, resulting in a dramatic increase of deforestation in their land. Mining destroys vital habitats for animals and soils the lands they need for the cultivation of their agricultural nourishment.

- The deforestation has led to increased rates of malaria which, in the past was never an issue in this region, now makes it very difficult to perform basic tasks to take care of themselves. Many of these cases can be cured easily with the right training and medications.

- Gold miners use mercury as one of the steps in extracting gold from the soil, resulting in river systems becoming contaminated with deadly levels which can

What is the solution?

- Malnutrition is multifactorial and complex. The causes listed above are overwhelmingly challenging, but the Yanomami People are profoundly resilient and dedicated to adapting in a way that will create an opportunity for their survival.

- Our team is working collaboratively with Yanomami shamans/traditional healers, women’s associations, allied health partners, and researchers to implement a multi-phased approach to addressing each factor in an empowering manner.

- We are developing a team of expert ethnobotanists and medicinal plant experts to help document and preserve the traditional medicine systems that the Yanomami have cultivated over 1,000’s of years which can ensure their ability to take caer of themselves.

- We are collaboratively building preventative healthcare education programs to educate the Yanomami on the risks of consuming processed foods, how to mitigate liter, how to use sewage management systems to decrease parasite exposure, and other elements that would give them the ability to better navigate these challenges from an educated vantage point.

- We are developing this in a way that would empower the Yanomami to carry this process out themselves over time, allowing for a self-replicating model to emerge that will revitalize the sovereignty of the community’s ability to protect themselves from harm.

- All of this is being done in a way that is meant to empower communities and make us obsolete over time, preserving their autonomy and ensuring sustainability.

Thank you so much for your support and your commitment to supporting the Yanomami People’s right to exist and thrive in their land! With your help, this project can grow into a template that can benefit other remote communities experiencing similar challenges. We hope to see you in July at the Jamboree and appreciate your generous donation!