‘We are trapped’: Yanomami indigenous people complain about the conditions in the care home; location in Roraima faces overcrowding | Profession Reporter

‘We are trapped’: Yanomamis complain about conditions in the care home; location in Roraima faces overcrowding

Each lodge is home to a specific Yanomami ethnic group. The team heard some complaints from the Yanomami sheltering there. An indigenous woman mentions that they cannot come and go freely.

“We don’t go out. We are trapped and they are putting up a very high wall. We have a habit of being trapped, like an animal in here.”

Another sheltered person complains about the quality of the food served there.

“Is very bad. The food is not good and there is a lot of diarrhea here”, she reports.

At the beginning of March, 600 indigenous people, including patients and companions, were living in the Get married. The number exceeds the number of spaces available at the facility.

“It’s no wonder we are in an emergency. We have a capacity of 450 indigenous people here in total, but it can accommodate the number we have today”, says Rednaj Mota Santos, nursing coordinator at Casai.

The coordinator of the Yanomami Health District, Marcos Pellegrini highlights the challenges with sewage and the lack of drinking water.

“There were more than 800 people in January last year. The roofs were restored, some bathrooms were still improvised. There was no water to drink here, there was no bathroom. The sewage here is not great, but it was open to the sky”, he says.

The lack of permanent assistance is mainly attributed to difficulties in accessing the region. “This region here is busier at the moment. It is a region that has a lot of health problems. We don’t have permanent assistance due to the issue of access”, highlights Marcos Pellegrini.

Most of the indigenous people who are sheltered in Casai suffer the consequences of malaria, malnutrition, flu syndromes and respiratory problems. Furthermore, many arrive with injuries caused by conflicts with miners and invaders in the villages..

“Last year we had outbreaks of diarrhea here, transmission of malaria, right? And these things have been controlled. This year there were some cases of Covid and, in these cases, we wait for a negative result to return to the area, but this decreases significantly”, says Marcos Pellegrini.

To listen to indigenous people who don’t speak Portuguese, the team had the help of Richard Duque, cultural mediator from Doctors Without Borders, and Ênio, Yanomami leader from the NGO Rutucara.

Richard shares the story of a Yanonami woman sheltering at Casai. She arrived at the place as her daughter’s companion and ended up becoming a patient. The woman, like others sheltered in Casai, has already been discharged and is eagerly awaiting to return to her village.

“She [mulher Yanomami] He said he is very sad because they come here, spend a lot of time here. ‘People forget about us when we are here. I can’t stand staying here anymore. The house is unhealthy. There are diseases here, there is diarrhea. The bathrooms stink,'” she reports.

When asked, the coordinator of the Yanomami Health District, Marcos Pellegrini, talks about the restricted access that sheltered people have to the city.

“We have been putting up fences, which has caused a lot of problems, not only with going to the city, but also with people from the city coming here. And you know, wanting to bring alcoholic drinks. There have been several cases of rapes of women here in the neighborhood, which have been reported. So we raise the wall, we will control it like any health unit. Nobody comes and goes whenever they want.”

On the day of the visit Profession Reporterthe cafeteria was under renovation. The Federal Government’s promise was that the space would be ready by the end of March.

The government also committed to carrying out a complete reform of Casai and implementing a hospital back-up unit for indigenous peoples to speed up medical care in the capital..

At the end of the visit, a surprise: some patients were asked to return to their villages due to an available flight opportunity. After COVID-19 tests, they are allowed to return home.

“Usually, we have some flight options, a flight opportunity arose. They are immediately called to return to the community. At that moment, he is about to take the material out of the accommodation. They will undergo a COVID test to return to the community and thus return to where they are from.”

Edition of 04/02/2024 – Yanomami Health

Check out the latest reports from Profissão Repórter below: