Newsletter No. 772
– Three days ago, 1500 people set up camp in aid of the São Francisco river
– Rondônia: 12% of the indigenous population studied at the Guajará Mirim Base Camp carries the Hepatitis B or C Virus
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THREE DAYS AGO, 1500 PEOPLE SET UP CAMP IN AID OF THE São Francisco RIVER
Whoever thought that there would be no protests challenging the decision to start the project to divert the São Francisco River was wrong. Social movements have set up a peaceful campsite, full of symbolisms, for 1500 people during the most important festival season in the Northeast, the St. John Festivals, reaffirming the need to find a sustainable development solution that respects the characteristics of the region. This is to oppose the violence of the Federal Government, which has started work on the project without the promised dialog with society. Furthermore, in support of these indigenous people, the group will collectively repossess an area claimed by the Truká people, but which was left out of their land when it was demarcated.
The voices of the more than ten movements that organized this act have been brought together in a declaration: “Water in the weirs and wells, lush shrubland, corn, soft cheese and paçoca (peanut fudge) to eat; liquors and a lot of traditional forró music around the bonfire… – these are signs of a Northeast that is beautiful and feasible, evidence of what the rainy season can bring to the semi-arid, if we change our focus, concentrate our efforts and invest. By choosing a project that is against the drought and not in favor of the semi-arid and its socio-environmental dynamics, the government is getting it wrong once again, as has historically been the case. A proposal to live with the semi-arid, which was expected of this government, would bury the policy and industry of combating the drought and would consolidate a policy of making good use of the rain, because it is the rain, not the drought, which is decisive for life in the hinterland and of the people that live there. (…) It is not a matter of whether to donate water or not, but what should be developed, at what price and for whom,” they say. (read the full text here)
The campsite was set up on Tuesday, 26 June, at kilometer 29 of the BR 428 highway, where the army has started work on extracting the water for the North Canal of the transposition project. Work is in progress but there is no programmed date for finishing it. Six indigenous peoples are present, with a total of around 260 protestors.
The objectives of the campsite are to interrupt the work and support the Truká. Symbolic acts such as the burial of the transposition project and the planting of seedlings of foodstuffs such as beans and corn are being carried out. There are also times when those at the camp receive training.
Rondônia: 12% of the indigenous POPULATION STUDIED at the Guajará-Mirim Base Camp carrIES the Hepatitis B or C Virus
In reply to an official letter from the Indianist Missionary Council, sent in February 2007, The Epidemological and Environemtal Watch Center (NUPEVA), in the municipality of Guajará-Mirim, Rondônia revealed some alarming data: 12% of the indigenous population studied carries the Hepatitis B or C Virus.
The survey, which led to this number, was carried out through a partnership between the municipality of Guajará-Mirim and the National Health Foundation (Funasa), in September 2005. Out of a total of 836 samples tested, 100 were infected by hepatitis B or C.
Cimi in Rondônia has announced that, despite having access to this information, Funasa did not take the necessary action to treat these patients, and attempted to keep these data secret.
“It is a great pity that the indigenous healthcare workers, the reference point for healthcare in the settlements, are not kept informed about the health of their patients. (…) It is Funasa’s responsibility to give every indigenous person the results of their examinations, send them wherever they need to go for treatment and, in view of these results, carry out urgent surveys in the other settlements.“ said the Cimi team in Guajará-Mirim, in a press release (read the full text here).
The team explains that people with chronic hepatitis need to be constantly accompanied, undergo complementary examinations, and possibly have specialist medical treatment. Delays in getting this treatment can put these patients’ lives at risk.
Pregnant women who are carrying the hepatitis virus must be closely monitored by an obstetrician, because this is a high-risk pregnancy.
In Cimi’s opinion, these data should have been used by Funasa to organize a specific program for the hepatitis viruses, which would require financial and technical resources: clinical and laboratory accompaniment for the sufferers, accompaniment of pregnant women, vaccination of the newly-born and training for health professionals and the communities.
Brasília, 28 June 2007
Cimi – Indianist Missionary Council
