Cabeceras Aid Projectıs fieldworkers will return to the rainforest of southeastern Peru this summer, to continue working in partnership with indigenous communities there to maintain and strengthen their well-being and autonomy. Between May and August we will work in two areas; first we will travel to the headwaters region of the Camisea River, where we will build upon our previous successful projects with the Nanti in 1997, 1998, and 1999; then we will travel to the headwaters region of the Paquiria River, which we first visited last year, to work with the recently-contacted Matsigenka of that area. As part of our efforts to combat introduced illness on the Paquiria River, we will also continue our collaboration with the Matsigenka community of Nueva Luz, and the Matsigenka health care worker based there. Please read on, to learn about our goals and strategies for this year. We hope we can count on your support for this valuable work!
2000 Fieldwork: The Camisea Project
During our last fieldwork project, from May to July of 1999, we worked with the two Nanti communities on the Camisea River to develop strategies that will put health care more into the hands of the Nanti themselves, and will decrease their dependence on outsiders for health care. The focus of our work last year was on treating malaria, an illness that did not affect the Camisea communities until the wet season of 1998, but which has caused them to suffer a great deal since then.
With the support of the regionıs government doctor, last year we brought the Nanti communities a substantial supply of anti-malarial medicines.Upon reaching Montetoni, we explained that we had brought medicines to treat malaria, and that we would be happy to teach people how to use them. The community selected two young men, Tyejerina and Bisarota, to learn. We began a rigorous training program, and after six weeks, Tyejerina and Bisarota had thoroughly mastered the complex course of treatment that malaria requires. (This story is recounted in greater detail in our September 1999 Update).
The rest of the villagers were very impressed by the how well and how quickly Tyejerina and Bisarota mastered the knowledge of the medicines -- the two young men had easily gained a kind of knowledge that they, the Nanti, had always been told was beyond their abilities. This led several Nanti to ask us to teach them new skills during our visit this coming summer.
Not surprisingly, the primary topic that community members want to know more about is medicine. Once they recognized that outsidersı medicine was not a mysterious or secret subject, they were eager to learn more about how it works and how to use it. We promised that we would teach them about every medicine for which we could obtain permission from the government doctor responsible for the area.
The second request, made by several men, was that we teach them about money. In the past, unscrupulous individuals have cheated many Nanti men outrageously because they do not yet have much understanding of what money is. But even though the Nanti have little familiarity with money, and traditionally count ³1, 2 or 3, many,² they are well aware that they have been treated unfairly in money dealings with outsiders. At the same time, outsiders have excused underpaying the Nanti for their labor by claiming that they couldnıt possibly give the Nanti money, since the Nanti ³donıt understand money.² As a result of this situation, thousands of dollarsı worth of timber has been harvested from Nanti land by the labor of Nanti men, with only a few machetes and t-shirts given in payment.
Therefore, during the two months we will be among the Nanti this year, we will teach anyone who is interested how to count, how to perform basic arithmetic, and how to connect these concepts to money. We will also teach them the prices of items they care about, like metal pots and machetes, so that they can develop a sense of how things are valued in terms of money. And we will leave behind teaching materials for counting, arithmetic, and money, so that if they wish to continue studying, or if those who learned from us wish to pass on what they have learned to their fellow villagers, they will have material resources to help them in that task.
Understanding counting, basic arithmetic, and money is a crucial next step for the Nanti in developing the skills they need to resist exploitation in their economic dealings with outsiders. And as always, our goal is to provide the Nanti with skills that will make them more independent of all outsiders, including ourselves.
Fundraising Goal: $2000 Funds will be used for: Medicines, tools and other material aid for the Nanti communities of Montetoni and Maranxejari Educational materials Fuel for river transportation for medicine, tools and other material aid
2000 Fieldwork: The Paquiria River and Nueva Luz Project
Last year, we began to develop a relationship with the recently-contacted people living at Manyokiari on the Paquiria River, and deepened our relationship with the Matsigenka community of Nueva Luz which lies at the mouth of the Paquiria River (this story is recounted at greater length in our September 1999 Update).
Our investigations on and around the Paquiria River last March and April led us to realize that the well-being of the groups living on the Paquiria is intimately connected with the activities of the Matsigenka from Nueva Luz, through whom the isolated Paquiria residents have contact with the outside world. For this reason, we have decided to treat the issues of the welfare of the recently-contacted people of the Paquiria and the welfare of the community of Nueva Luz together as a unified situation.
Unfortunately, many of the problems that the people of the Paquiria River are experiencing are due to the intrusions into their territory by woodcutters from Nueva Luz. The Matsigenka of Nueva Luz are driven to wood-cutting by the absence of economic alternatives; there is almost no other way to earn money for them. Woodcutters from Nueva Luz travel far up the Paquiria River in search of valuable trees. Thus the diseases that kill and terrify the people of the upper Paquiria River are brought to them by the people from Nueva Luz -- and this situation in turn arises from the problems that the people of Nueva Luz themselves experience in acquiring health care and medicines.
Nueva Luz is fortunate to have a dedicated and well-trained Matsigenka government-paid healthworker, Samuel Osega. Unfortunately, he is always under-supplied with medicines since the government has neither the funds to provide the necessary medicines, nor the means to get medicines to Nueva Luz. We promised Samuel that we would provide as much medicine as we could over the next several years, to allow him to treat the ill that his health post in Nueva Luz serves.
Our involvement with Nueva Luz will benefit the isolated people of the Paquiria River in two ways. First, since the diseases that the recently-contacted groups of the upper Paquiria face reach them via woodcutters from Nueva Luz (who become sick through their contact with the highly-mobile mestizo populations of the nearest towns), our support of adequate health care in Nueva Luz will work to protect the health of the more isolated populations at the headwaters of the Paquiria. Second, Samuel is the only local source of health care and medicines for the people of the recently-contacted groups on the Paquiria, which he provides on sporadic visits to their community. Therefore, the medicine we provide for Nueva Luzıs health post will also be available to treat the people of the Paquiria.
In late July of this year, we plan to visit the people at Manyokiari, in order to witness their present situation and ascertain their state of health and well-being. We hope that Samuel Osega will again be able to make this journey with us.
Fundraising Goal: $1500 Funds will be used for: Medicines for the Matsigenka communities of Nueva Luz and Manyokiari Tools and other material aid for the people of Manyokiari Fuel for river transportation of medicines, tools and other material aid Please, make a donation and support our fieldwork this year!