BECOME AN ALLY OF THE PEOPLE OF THE AMAZON FOREST
The people of the forest are the guardians of the Amazon. For various generations, indigenous folk, riverside dwellers and quilombolas have combated, face to face, illegal deforestation, land-mining and land invasions. Surrounded by forest and rivers, the indigenous people are hours and hours away from local health centers, which makes it even more difficult for them to have access to adequate medical care. The people of the forest are used to defending their own life – and the life that thrives around them.
The new coronavirus has spread itself quickly through the Amazon. Changing its epicenter from the large urban centers into the heartland of the country, the pandemic is now fully affecting the people of the forest. The numbers are striking: amongst the indigenous people, the mortality rate for Covid-19 is 150% larger than the Brazilian average*.
Right now our goal is to guarantee food on the table for people living in vulnerable and critical conditions. We also donated basic protection gear (masks, gloves, and boots) for health and sanitation workers and local leaderships that are in the frontlines in the fight against the corona virus – in indigenous territories, extractivist reserves, traditional communities and urban peripheral communities in the states of Amazonas and Pará.
The campaign AMAZON LIVES (AMAZÔNIA COMVIDA) is an emergency answer to the tragedy that is already running its course.
The initial fund will also support the construction of Amazon Lives Fund, which will finance sustaintable production process projects carried out by communities in the Amazonic region.
The people of the forest need us. It is time for us to join them.
* Co-ordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and the Institute of Research of the Amazon (IPAM) – from a study presented in 22/06/2020.
