Empower Indigenous Youth Activist Association

The following is an updated report of the work that has been carried out from the month of May 2018 up until the month of July 2018.

INTERCULTURAL HEALTH

Health Insurance for Paoyhan

On the 5th and 6th of May, we set out to do a Health Insurance workshop in the community of Paoyhan. The objective was to inform the community members about:

• How to get health insurance
• How to get national IDs (required for health insurance)
• What are the rights and benefits of getting insurance
• Organizing logistics and information to issue health insurance for community members, as well as National ID cards for newborn babies.

We carried out the workshop over 2 afternoons, with our shipibo staff which is composed of Shipibo nurse Silveria Pino Canayo, and Shipibo nursing student, Marcelita Suarez. Over the course of the workshop we realized that:

• Many people do not know about health insurance benefits.
• Many people did not know what things were free vs paid.
• People raised the point of discrimination and lack of resources in hospitals.
• Many people are denied proper attention due to discrimination issues.

We have been lucky enough to know Silveria, our shipibo nurse and ally, who could answer a variety of questions and properly oriented attendants, even referencing them specific allies of hers in the hospitals, so that they could get proper attention. At the end of the workshop, we gathered a list of more than 80 people who wanted to get their insurance status updated (for it to be active). We successfully activated their insurance status thanks to SIlveria and Marcella. Oscar, the local nurse, will be in charge of getting insurance for those lacking so, once the information is updated.

After our first visit in May, at the end of the month, we did another visit in order to deliver insurance updated statuses. People were extremely overjoyed and in the next round of visits, we got a list of 196 people this time, who were interested in updating their insurance status.

Why update insurance status?

Because of changes in recent government protocols, some insurance becomes annulled. It is necessary then, to update the status in government systems. If insurance is not updated, individuals do not have access to regular care.

Helping in getting IDs for mothers in Paoyhan

After our very successful sessions in Paoyhan regarding information sessions on insurance and ID, thanks to our new community health worker, Nora, we funded travel expenses for 11 mothers who came to Pucallpa to get IDs for their newborn babies. This is extremely important, because without IDs, babies are not able to get insurance. Now we are currently in the process of delivering forms to the 11 mothers so that we can pick up the IDs for them, presenting a form that will cut the costs of the 11 mothers traveling again.

PAP Campaign follow-up work in Bena Jema

After a very successful PAP smear campaign in Bena Jema in March, the results are finally in. However, we have learned a lot about the lack of resources at the hospitals and have been running into some logistical issues: The results took a long time due to the fact that there is only one person who can read the results. Now, even though the results are ready, there is no one to digitize them at the hospital due to lack of hospital budget. We are trying to solve this issue by delivering the results as soon as possible and through Silveria’s contacts. However, even though we have been running into problems with the results, we are still continuing to deliver follow-up work. We are in the process of organizing a plant-medicine workshop for gynecological health, hosted by Carolina Mahua, per request of the mothers. We are very excited to do this workshop at the end of the month, and produce a zine, which will gather all the recipes that come out of this workshop, through collective knowledge.

Women’s Health Workshop in Paoyhan

As a way of measuring our health impact and work, we replicated our women’s health workshop in Paoyhan, with Marcella, Silveria, and our reproductive health expert, Jessica Northridge, at the end of June. The workshop was quite successful and women had many questions about their health. We even collected preliminary data to measure learning and understanding of topics during the workshop. Topics touched upon included: menstruation, menopause, STDs, and Cervical Cancer. Jessica will write a blog about the workshop the month of July. Women are eager to organize a PAP campaign, just like in Bena Jema, which is very good news for us.

YOUTH WORK

Developing Skills and Avenues for Self Expression through Hip Hop in Paoyhan

The month of June was also super exciting because we hosted a Hip Hop weekend workshop with the youth and children of Paoyhan. We brought special hip hop artists and youth workers from Lima, who formed such special bonds with the participants. During the workshops, we hosted movie nights, we wrote songs, did stencils, and even prepared an evening show, where the youth prepared their own choreography. The workshop was incredibly successful! At some point, we had more than 70 participants, who were very engaged, eager, and found a special place to express themselves artistically, through dance, painting, and instruments. Participants formed special bonds with the facilitators, resulting in them communicating often even after the workshop was over. Participants, especially the youth, requested another similar workshop, but only for teens. We are happy about this, because this means that the youth are starting to have ideas of their own that they want to see happen. We are excited about mentoring them and for Wendy’s presence in guiding the process. You can watch the video we made HERE

NEW ADDITIONS TO OUR TEAM STAFF

We are happy and proud of introducing a new member of our team, Silveria Pino Canayo, who has officially joined us under a paid salary since mid-June. Silveria is a shipibo nurse, who has extensive experience as an intercultural health expert, health advocate, and community health worker. Since working with her on a per-workshop basis, we became saw the incredible work that she has been able to contribute to the table, and thus, we saw the importance of hiring her. She is already such a great addition to our team!

COMMUNITY HEALTH WORKERS:

Bena Jema: Luzmila, Amelia, Maritza

Paoyhan: Nora

FUTURE PROJECTIONS

• We have now seen that since our intercultural health work has expanded considerably, our work has bifurcated into two avenues: a) Intercultural Health Work b) Youth Empowerment.
• We hope to continue to support both programs in the future by both increasing shipibo staff members, and increasing their hours (i.e. salary)
• We are happy to continue our intercultural health work and advocacy, bridging resources to community members. Now that our young shipibo nurse in training, Marcella, will soon graduate from nursing school at the end of this year, 2018, we look forward to hiring her full time, thus increasing her salary. We are also happy to continue supporting Silveria on our team.
• We are looking into deepening our youth work, both in Bena Jema and Paoyhan, which means we are looking to hire one extra shipibo member.
• We’ve seen great value in mentoring and hosting internships for our shipibo youth who are studying in the city. This not only equips them with skills to be able to afront expectations in a new academic setting, but it also offers them applied learning skills and an intercultural environment where they can learn from our volunteers or team members through skills transfers. Successful cases in terms of marketing and communications internships have already been documented (Non Kene) and we wish to replicate this model in other areas of Alianza Arkana, through our youth programs. Thus, we would like an internship coordinator to support the effort.
• We want to continue to offer our staff members professional development opportunities to improve their skills and abilities during work.