Covid-19: iconic chef Raoni appeals to help natives

Face of the indigenous community of Amazonia, the chief Raoni launched Sunday, April 26, a call for the donations, in order to help the indigenous populations to face the new coronavirus.

"We need to be supplied with basic foodstuffs, hygiene products, medicines and also fuel to be able to transport them" to the indigenous communities, said the cacique, in a video broadcast by the French NGO Planet Amazon, which orchestrates the donation campaign.

"We need financial support and I therefore turn to you to support my community," he pleaded again.

Covid-19: the call for help of the cacique Raoni Metuktire

"WITHOUT YOUR HELP, THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES CANNOT DEAL WITH THIS TERRIBLE DISEASE" The heart-rending call of the cacique Raoni Metuktire, chief of the Kayapo people. Support the campaign: https://cutt.ly/0yalxn4This video accompanies the "Kayapo-Metuktire" operation, the first phase of the emergency campaign launched by Planète Amazon: "COVID-19: PROTECT THE GUARDIANS OF THE AMAZON! " Faced with the risk of their genocide, Planète Amazon is launching a campaign of calls for long-term donations, in bond and solidarity with the indigenous peoples of Amazonia. The funds collected within the framework of the campaign "Covid-19: protect the Guardians of the 'Amazonia' must allow the peoples or communities concerned by our operations to secure their self-containment. Strict respect for this isolation is all the more vital since the natives, because of their immune fragility and their extreme precariousness in terms of access to healthcare, are ideal victims for the Covid-19. As if that were not enough, the culpable negligence or inconsistency of government policies in the countries of the Amazon basin puts its people in a position of high risk of genocide. The urgency is therefore absolute! Given that we are on the way to a long-lasting international health crisis and that the Amazon countries have not even reached the peak of the pandemic, the campaign will consist of several operations, which may even, if the first is a success, to be held simultaneously. As part of this campaign, the cacique Raoni, confined to his village, calls on his French and international friends to mobilize for his people by financing basic food and health products, fishing equipment, medicines and fuel for transport them to confined villages accessible only by waterway. Without supplies, the confinement of the Kayapo-Metuktire people cannot hold. And if the confinement gives way, it is a guaranteed disaster. The Amazon Planet campaign aims to support other indigenous peoples in critical situation in the near future. Thank you for making it a success.Learn more about the situation of the natives in Brazil: https://cutt.ly/MyalEcE#GardiensEnDanger#Raoni#ProtegeonsLesGardiens#PlaneteAmazone#Kayapo#SOSAmazonia

"Without your help, the indigenous peoples of Brazil will not be able to cope with this terrible disease," said iconic chief Raoni Metuktire, 90, saying he would confine himself.

"The abandonment of the indigenous peoples of the Amazon"

For its part, Amazon Planet argues that "faced with the abandonment of the indigenous peoples of Amazonia by the Brazilian public authorities, during the health crisis of SARS-COV2, or COVID-19", it "launches today" today a campaign of financial support for its indigenous partners ", according to a press release.

Some 800,000 indigenous people live in Brazil. So far, at least 30 have been infected with Covid-19 disease and three have died. A Brazilian judge recently banned evangelical missionaries from contacting indigenous peoples in the Amazon, who are particularly vulnerable to imported viruses, such as Covid-19.

With AFP

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