No one should die of malaria today

Principal Activities October 2024 - January 2025: During the past four months, our main activity was a two-week trip to the field in Kayama (Bolívar State), benefiting the Jotï and Eñepa Indigenous Peoples (~2,000 people). We are thrilled to report that malaria has not been a concern for either group in over 18 months, with almost zero cases reported (just one case!)! This is a fantastic result, and we are incredibly pleased with this progress.

Given that we anticipate not being able to visit the area for at least nine months, our primary goal during this trip for the health project was to replenish essential supplies, including medicines, malaria treatment and diagnostic materials, reading glasses, and other resources. We also wanted to ensure that both communities had the necessary materials available in case of emergencies.

On the same flight that transported medicines, medical supplies, school materials, and people to the communities, three emergency patients were also flown to the city for urgent and specialized medical treatments. These included a young Eñepa man in a grave state who had been bitten by a poisonous snake, and two little Jotï girls (both younger than 2 years old) who required emergency surgery. After a month, all three cases had recovered sucesfully after receiving medical care! The project also donated funds to help cover the costs of care of two other Indigenous patients (a Yabarana woman and a young Jotï man). 

Jotï Community: Prior to the trip, we coordinated with members from Amazonian communities to arrange for a plane that would bring eight Jotï leaders from Jkawale, Morocoto, Pendarito, and Iguana to Kayama. Over the course of two weeks, these leaders worked alongside us, as outlined in the activities below. Once we completed the planned tasks, we sent medicines and school supplies with the leaders to each of the four communities (see attached photos, below).

Eñepa Community: For the Eñepa community, we provided several key items, including a new communication radio, a laptop computer, and a cell phone. We worked closely with the community for one week, assisting them with setting up record-keeping on the new laptop and providing Excel training. During this time, we also conducted the entire community census alongside the new nurse (a young woman), the main community leader, and two other younger men.

Future Directions: Given the great success of the malaria prevention and control program, resulting in the drastic decline or disappearance of the disease incidence in the last year or so, the project team began to shift their outreach to other areas of need. In particular, the Jotï at Kayama, Iguana and Morocoto requested our help and support for their school systems. Among other things, this type of assistance would include the acquisition of needed school supplies and equipment, reactivation or expansion of regular classroom activities, and development of new primary educational products using both the local and national languages and incorporating cultural and environmental topics appropriate to the context.

The schools at these locations were deeply impacted by the Covid-19 epidemic, and thus suffered in terms of the assistance received from national institutions and the levels of local attendance. At the same time, we were in contact with other Jotï communities, at Kaware and Pendarito on the Parucito River, who did not have formally established schools but expressed their desire to initiate formal educational activities for the children in their communities. A multi-day assembly, attended by representatives from all of the communities, was held at Kayama in January-February 2024 to define the terms and make plans for the new educational program, which would be instituted in all of the areas mentioned. Subsequently, during visits to Iguana in March-April, and Kaware and Pendarito in August-September of 2024, advances were made in all of the areas.

Time during the field trip to Kayama in the present reporting period, in the first two weeks of October, was dedicated in large part to a workshop attended by community leaders and teachers from that community as well as representatives from the other four communities. Activities conducted during the workshop included: 1) a progress report on the state of the project and what remains to be done, 2) delivery of various supplies (e.g., different types of notebooks, pencils, crayons and markers, sharpeners and erasers, compass and rulers, blackboards, backpacks and pencil bags, etc.) and equipment (e.g., batteries and regulators for the electrical supply),

The workshop focused on 3) review, modification and agreement on the unified alphabet for writing the local language, 4) community preparation of basic written materials in Joti - consisting of inventories of words, phrases, sentences, topical texts and short stories - organized by the inventory of spoken syllables appearing in the language, to be used for the elaboration of primary schoolbooks, such as first- and second-grade readers, 5) elaboration of drawings that will accompany the words, sentences and texts that appear in the schoolbooks, and 6) election of design styles for the schoolbooks.

Following the trip to Kayama, all of the collected didactic material compiled during the workshop was scanned. During November-January, we have spent a large amount of time transcribing and editing this material, which was originally hand-written. The edited version of these texts will then be developed as the primary schoolbooks during the period of February-May.

We began this project six years ago at the request of these organized Indigenous communities to interrupt the terrible toll of malaria on their health, lives, sovereignty and cultural continuity. It gives us great joy to be invited into this new project of Indigenous-designed and led, bioculturally-appropriate education. The possibility and energy for this project is due in no small part to the communities' success in combatting malaria.

Our gratitude for your support, which launched and continues to enable this project!