Goal
Promote structural changes in health systems and networks to reduce the impact of COVID-19 on the lives, organizations and territories of Indigenous populations in the Ecuadorian, Peruvian and Brazilian Amazon, and to improve the access to care, prevention and protection measures by placing the rights and cultures of Indigenous peoples at the core of public health systems.
Where
Ecuador, Peru (Madre de Dios), Brazil (Maranhao)
Why
In the Amazon, COVID-19 represents an increasing threat. The lack of access to health services and the limited response to the pandemic add to the pressures that Indigenous peoples and local communities and their territories have historically faced. The effects of COVID-19 and its response measures have exacerbated their vulnerabilities to the impacts of deforestation, logging, illegal mining, oil extraction and the constant violation of their human and territorial rights.
How
The Amazon Indigenous Health Route (AIR) project is an innovative model of care based on intercultural knowledge dialogues and facilitation of multi-stakeholder processes, bringing together health public servants, indigenous organizations, academia, and civil society organizations around joint activities designed to tackle the COVID-19 pandemic in the Amazon.
The Route’s implementation is organized around four main strategies:
Strategy 1 – Placing the needs and rights of Indigenous peoples at the center of the diagnostic and primary healthcare and telehealth networks
Strategy 2 – Adapting health promotion and disease prevention approaches and materials to be culturally relevant and effectively foster behavioral change, in target Indigenous communities
Strategy 3 – Developing capacities of indigenous Community Health Promoters (CHP)
Strategy 4 – Expanding digital surveillance capacity in Indigenous communities and linking data to the formal health system
