Yanomami still in dire need of assistance, new report shows
Health care facilities in precarious conditions, a shortage of care providers, and widespread abandonment—these are the main conclusions drawn by the Ministry of Health on the reality of the people living in the Yanomami indigenous territory, in the northern state of Roraima.
The members of this ethnic group are undergoing a severe humanitarian crisis. Assailed by illegal mining activities on their land, the Yanomami people struggle with environmental devastation, water contamination, the spread of disease, and violent conflicts. Their current situation stems from a range of historical drivers, aggravated in the last four years.
The team from the ministry’s Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health gathered data for the report from January 15–25 this year. On January 20, President Lula had already declared public health emergency of national importance and created a designated center of operations to tackle the crisis.
The Yanomami indigenous territory—Brazil’s largest—is home to 30.5 thousand people, of whom at least 5.6 thousand are children under five. In all, 68 primary care facilities have been installed, but they remain in a precarious state.
“Indeed, we have a precarious situation in our infrastructure and, based on our plan, we will be making all the improvements, in addition to the budget already available to [the indigenous secretariat]. No decision has been made by the president or the ministry to allocate specific budget,” Ricardo Weibe Tapeba, head of the ministry’s secretariat, said at a presser yesterday (Feb. 7). He is in Boa Vista to monitor the action.
The survey team began investigating reports on three deaths of children, occurred from December 24–27 last year. On the occasion, 17 air medical calls were made requesting immediate transportation. In January, the mission team found at least ten airlifts a day, with as many as 23 kids rescued at once on one of them.
In January alone, as per the operations center, 223 airlifts were carried out—111 within the territory and 112 to state capital Boa Vista. The main health problems listed in the region are malaria, pneumonia, malnutrition, and incidents with poisonous animals.
Further obstacles
Another issue facing the indigenous people is insecurity arising from the presence of miners. At least seven health stations have been shut down due to serious threats. One of these centers was renovated, but could not be re-opened due to the same problem.
Another factor hindering assistance is the lack of supplies, especially medicines. Emergency transportation requires supplies such as crash carts, small medical oxygen cylinders, automatic external defibrillators, and serum. None of these were available to the team during fieldwork.
Secretary Tapeba also criticized what he termed the political takeover of public health care in the community. An audit conducted by the ministry, he pointed out, found irregular contracts, and the police are still investigating the involvement of political agents in collusion with miners.
