{"id":44836,"date":"2020-08-26T20:37:54","date_gmt":"2020-08-26T18:37:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/?p=44836"},"modified":"2021-12-01T13:48:22","modified_gmt":"2021-12-01T12:48:22","slug":"indigenous-people-refuge-amazon-forest-covid19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/story\/44836\/indigenous-people-refuge-amazon-forest-covid19\/","title":{"rendered":"With the advance of COVID-19, Indigenous People shelter inside the Forest"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The original version of this story was published in Portuguese on July 15 by Greenpeace Brazil<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n\n

Jair used both hands to cover his throat while tightly squeezing his eyes shut, showing that his throat \u201cclosed up\u201d when he was infected with COVID-19. \u201cEverything hurt,\u201d he said, mimicking gestures and expressions of pain and suffering.<\/p>\n\n

According to the leaders of the D\u00e2w community, the pandemic affected almost all of its 140 residents.<\/p>\n\n

The D\u00e2w People (from the Naduhup linguistic family) live in the Waru\u00e1 community. They are located on the right bank of the Rio Negro, in front of S\u00e3o Gabriel da Cachoeira in the state of Amazonas (AM), Brazil, a city where COVID-19 arrived abruptly at the end of April<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

\"The \u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-44837″\/>
The D\u00e2w People Community (population, 140) in front of the city of S\u00e3o Gabriel da Cachoeira.
\u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

With a history scarred by episodes of violence and exploitation from non-Indigenous People, they almost became extinct in the 1980s, reaching just about 60 people. Today, the population is growing and undertakes cultural and language documentation projects in which the elders have been essential for passing on their knowledge.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThey are living in a time of rescuing and reaffirmation of their knowledge. Now, the pandemic has become a threat,\u201d says Karolin Obert, a linguistics researcher who has worked with the D\u00e2w People for over five years. According to her, the fear of extinction among them is real. \u201cEpidemics are a recurring issue in the stories they tell. So, it ends up triggering a traumatic memory of diseases that non-indigenous people had transmitted in the past,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n

The vulnerability of this People reflects the situation of many Indigenous Peoples who are still fighting for better healthcare conditions and for their rights to be effectively guaranteed. <\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace” alt=”Jair handles the plants and tea his people used to help them cope from COVID-19.
\u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-44838″\/>
Jair handles the plants and tea his people used to help them cope from COVID-19.
\u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The memories of the past and closeness to the city made the news about COVID-19 scary for the population. \u201cWe were terrified, like in a panic. Everyone who passed through our community said that it was a powerful disease,\u201d noted Roberto Carlos Fernandes Sanches, on-site professor, and leader. \u201cI held a meeting and said, \u2018we will have to leave the community.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n

From there, all the residents left their homes to isolate themselves inside the forest. They took shelter in wooden huts they use to make manioc flour or built emergency huts. Some shelters were approximately a 30-minute walk from the community, while others were located about two hours away on foot. \u201cWhen we fled to the jungle, no one stayed behind. This community became a sad sight. Once in a while, I would call on my daughter and [see] only the empty houses. I wondered if my people would die,\u201d remembers, emotionally, Auxiliadora Fernandes da Silva, teacher and community leader. \u201cI don\u2019t want my people to die, none of them, because my people are too few,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n

As reported by the D\u00e2w leaders, the families stayed inside the forest for a month. However, some of them began going to S\u00e3o Gabriel da Cachoeira to get supplies during this period, and the virus ended up spreading to them. Carlos believes that every community resident has been infected. Doctor Rafael Huff, from the Upper Rio Negro Special Indigenous Sanitary District (DSEI) that serves the community, agrees.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cVirtually 100% of the community must have been infected,\u201d he said. Most showed symptoms, but there were not enough tests for the entire population. According to the doctor, 25 quick tests were performed, of which 14 D\u00e2w were identified as positive for COVID-19. However, he says he cannot rule out other cases because of the possibility of false-negative results, which are frequent in this type of test. Also, because the community has a collective lifestyle, and it is difficult for everyone to adopt the habit of using face masks.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace<\/div> \u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace” alt=”One of the shelters families from the D\u00e2w people used to isolate themselves, inside the forest. \u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace” class=”wp-image-44839″\/>
One of the shelters families the D\u00e2w People used to isolate themselves, inside the forest.
\u00a9 Christian Braga \/ Greenpeace<\/div><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n

The Coping with COVID-19 Committee<\/em>, which is operating in S\u00e3o Gabriel da Cachoeira, took some preventive measures in the community and brought some hygiene products and protective masks. There was also a booklet with information about the disease printed in the D\u00e2w language. <\/p>\n\n

Fortunately, up until now, despite the high rate of local infection, there have been no deaths among the D\u00e2w Indigenous People in the community. Besides the medical support from DSEI and the actions of the Coping with COVID-19 Committee, they are giving themselves treatment with herbal teas and root teas. \u201cWe worried day and night, and when we met, we said \u2018keep drinking the tea,\u2019\u201d recalls Auxiliadora, about their time isolated in the jungle.<\/p>\n\n

Jair, who described his experience when infected with the disease, is also proud to show a 2-liter bottle with a brown liquid. Inside is a homemade herbal tea, which he says helped him cope with the disease.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Despite the recovery of those affected by COVID-19, the fear that the D\u00e2w People\u2019s existence could end because of the disease remains among the leaders. \u201cIf the disease killed [us], our numbers would decrease further, so I ask the authorities to pay more attention to our people,\u201d says Roberto Carlos. He is still waiting for the opportunity to be able to test the whole community and thus see how many of the D\u00e2w People have actually contracted the disease. He has also asked for better healthcare conditions for the People.<\/p>\n\n

Luana Lila is the Head of Storytelling at Greenpeace Brazil.<\/em><\/p>\n

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With only 140 members, the D\u00e2w People left their houses to take refuge in the forest and protect from the pandemic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":44837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_planet4_optimize_post_is_variant":false,"_planet4_optimize_experiment_name":"","_planet4_optimize_variant_name":"","ep_exclude_from_search":false,"p4_og_title":"","p4_og_description":"","p4_og_image":"","p4_og_image_id":"","p4_seo_canonical_url":"","p4_campaign_name":"Covid-19 Response","p4_local_project":"not set","p4_basket_name":"not set","p4_department":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[91],"p4-page-type":[59],"class_list":["post-44836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-and-economic-systems","tag-health","p4-page-type-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44836"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44836\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":51129,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44836\/revisions\/51129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44836"},{"taxonomy":"p4-page-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.greenpeace.org\/international\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/p4-page-type?post=44836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}