No one should die of malaria today

In the summer of 2025, news of continued low rates of malaria and deliveries of supplies and systems to maintain community health were eclipsed by a joyful new achievement. We had the privilege to deliver initial copies of the first primer in the Indigenous Jotï language. More books will arrive in remote communities shortly, now that our principal pilots' aircraft is back from the mechanic!

This community-created primer--a basic text to teach children to read in Jotï--is the result of a close and long-standing collaboration between the Jotï people and project leaders. Since 2000, the researchers and the community have been engaged in action-research, co-creation, and co-production initiatives including health and education. This primer responds to the Jotï's collective request for support in strengthening their educational processes—including the development and implementation of a unified alphabet to address the diversity of existing writing systems.

The primer is designed to support learning of the new alphabet and reading in both the Jotï language and Spanish. It marks the first step in developing a unique, intercultural, and bilingual educational program (PEPI Jotï), as encouraged by the national Ministry of Education. Until now, such a program did not exist.

The 142-page book is the product of eight months of collaborative work by researchers and community members who compiled, edited, translated, wrote, and designed it. It is not only a pedagogical tool but also a powerful expression of collective ethnic affirmation. Its first destination is Jotï schools, where both teachers and students eagerly await its arrival.

The primer emerges from intensive community engagement. More than 100 Jotï individuals from at least five communities in the states of Amazonas and Bolívar participated in a preliminary community consultation. This led to the establishment of a collective commitment schedule, resulting in consistent contributions from nearly 60 participants. The joy of contributors and recipients upon receiving copies of the work they had done to facilitate learning in language and culture was palpable.

Under the leadership of a dedicated linguist and with strong local involvement, three workshops were held in 2024, two in Kayamá and one in Caño Iguana. A fourth alphabet practice session took place in Jkawale and Morocoto, Amazonas.

During the workshops, the Jotï autonomously and by consensus celected their official unified alphabet, character by character, defined its orthographic symbols, and established writing rules. They created and compiled linguistic databases—including syllables, words, sentences, and texts—containing nearly 2,000 words for a forthcoming dictionary using the new alphabet. Community members also produced approximately 800 illustrations to accompany the reading materials.

Looking to the future, the initiative will continue with the development of additional teaching materials tailored to the Jotï's cultural and educational needs. The workshops generated specialized written content sufficient for at least two more school books, with digitized texts totaling nearly 300 single-spaced pages.

Thank you for your steadfast support of community prioirities! You made it possible for us to be part of a broad-based collaboration that made this new intiative possible, while continuing to support community health. As we've said from the start, health enables attention to wellbeing and cultural transmission. We're delighted to share the pride people feel on creating a text that shares their language, identity, and beliefs with the next generation.