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Dear Friend,
As the world faces what feels like unprecedented times, Indigenous Peoples across the globe are reflecting on the experiences of our ancestors in fighting past pandemics. We are turning to our traditional knowledge, practices and values to remain strong and healthy in this crisis. When rooted in the strength of our lands, cultures, languages, knowledge, ancestors, and communities, we will be resilient– but even in our resilience we still face disproportionate challenges and inequities in navigating this pandemic.
Centuries of colonization has impacted our access to lands, territories, and natural resources and has disrupted our access to food and medicine, leaving many in our communities with underlying health conditions such as diabetes, malnutrition, obesity, and heart disease. The lands where we harvest our food and our medicine have been contaminated and degraded.
International solidarity is vital for the survival of our Indigenous Peoples and all our relations. There is a special need to support ground-breaking initiatives managed by Indigenous governments, local community organizations, women, and youth, who know what is needed on the local level and are on the ground to carry it out.
- Cultural Survival’s Keepers of the Earth Fund is providing emergency support for COVID-19 response to our grant partners, like the Organization of Indigenous Women United for Biodiversity of Panama, who just developed a project plan to carry out a communication campaign in print, on the radio, and on television in Guna, Embera, and Spanish languages to inform and prepare their communities for the increasing spread of COVID-19 in rural Indigenous communities of Panama.
- Cultural Survival is also leading the way by producing and distributing Public Service Announcements in Indigenous languages for broadcast at community radio stations about preventative measures against COVID-19. So far, we have produced programs in 40+ Indigenous languages and are nearly halfway to our goal of producing and disseminating radio programs in 100 Indigenous languages across 1000+ radio stations.
- We are working on securing further emergency funding to our grassroots grant partners to respond to the crisis in their local communities using Indigenous solutions. This crisis requires urgent action, but also investment in long-term solutions for Indigenous health, food security, mental health and healing, and Indigenous sovereignty.
- We are also launching an Emergency Response Tool-Kit for Indigenous community radio stations in several languages.
Join Cultural Survival in upholding Indigenous Rights, health, well being and cultural continuity during this critical time. We rely on people like you to keep our institution and communities strong. Make a financial gift today! Time is of the essence!
With gratitude,
 
Galina Angarova (Buryat)
Executive Director
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