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                                                      Aslan Shand

Dear Relatives,


It is with immense concern that I share with you an emergency request from my close friend Chief Ninawa, President of the Huni Kui People’s Federation of the Brazilian Amazon, asking for at least 15,000 PPE masks and sanitation supplies from our Protect the People Emergency PPE Partnership : [link removed] necessary to slow the spread of COVID-19 that is racing through his homelands, taking the lives of beloved elders, community leaders and chiefs, and threatening the very existence of the Indigenous guardians of the living Amazon-- the lungs of our Mother Earth.  


Please donate here : [link removed] to our partnership, which has decided to do everything in its power to help our Indigenous relatives of the Amazon after having already distributed 80,000 masks to Indigenous brothers and sisters in the hardest hit areas of Turtle Island (North America), Mexico, and Ecuador.  


In the midst of recovering from COVID-19 himself, Chief Ninawa is now sending an urgent call for help because the Huni Kui peoples have not yet received any Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) to date to protect themselves from the quickly escalating coronavirus pandemic that is already sweeping through the area.  


Even the smallest contribution will save lives, but we must mobilize quickly, click here : [link removed] to make a donation now.  IEN and its partners at Eaton Workshop, Movement Rights, Idle No More San Francisco Bay, T.E.J.A.S., Amazon Watch, WECAN, and Global Exchange are already in the process of identifying the best supplier and safe distribution method to buy and ship these supplies directly to Chief Ninawa.  We are down to our last bit of funds raised however, and we desperately need your help to make this additional purchase for our friend!


Chief Ninawa is the international spokesperson for almost 15,000 people from dozens of villages across multiple territories of the Western Amazonia.  IEN and others have been lifting his voice for many years in opposition to the dangerous and ineffective false solutions that threaten his peoples and the forests they protect including REDD+ and other carbon trading schemes. 
 

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                     Vane Ramos




Research released this month by the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (COIAB) and the Amazon Environmental Research Institute (IPAM) showed the coronavirus mortality rate among Indigenous people is 150% higher : [link removed] than the Brazilian average.


In this Thomson Reuters Foundation article : [link removed], Eliésio Marubo, an attorney for the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley (UNIVAJA) explains why COVID-19 has the potential to wipe out entire communities of Indigenous people in the Amazon, including their lack of immunological defenses to western-born diseases due to their avoidance of contact with non-indigenous people, and the difficulty of obtaining the safest of equipment and supplies that can provide the type of protection and healthcare that this new virus demands.


"Facing extermination": Virus sweeps through Brazil's indigenous tribes : [link removed]. Read this article in The Guardian about how Coronavirus has swept through tribes, killing elders – and inflicting irreparable damage on tribal history, culture and medicine.


As Indigenous peoples we know that the same forces that threaten the Indigenous lives of the Amazon are the same forces that have put them in danger of being wiped out by the deadly coronavirus. We also know that one of the most effective ways to address the interconnected crisis of climate change is to protect the Indigenous peoples that are guardians of what is 80% of the biodiversity on Mother Earth.  Our existence is the resistance.  


COVID-19 is fueling the newest record-breaking forest fires of the Amazon.  Join us in this act of love and solidarity and Act Now : [link removed] to save lives now!

: [link removed]                                          David Tesinsky 


About our Protect the People's Emergency PPE Partnership : [link removed]:
As an all-volunteer project, 100% of the funds raised from the PPE Partnership go directly to purchasing and distributing masks to Indigenous peoples in the hardest hit locations. Our group has focused on providing masks to communities directly in bundles of 100-2,000 each. Through our humble collective effort we have: 
Raised $80,000+ of our $200,000 goal; Supplied almost 80,000 N95, KN95, surgical and washable reusable cotton masks to 37 Turtle Island grassroots community partners (who each distribute those masks to dozens more);Provided 2,000 masks to Indigenous brothers and sisters in Ecuador and Mexico;Orchestrated weekly contact with affected communities to facilitate a fluid process to serve those most in need.As Indigenous peoples, we do all we can to help each other when asked.  IEN, together with our allied-partners in this initiative, humbly call upon your support at this time. 
Mitakuye Owasin,
Tom BK Goldtooth



 

 

 

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Established in 1990, The Indigenous Environmental Network is an international environmental justice nonprofit that works with tribal grassroots organizations to build the capacity of Indigenous communities. I EN’s activities include empowering Indigenous communities and tribal governments to develop mechanisms to protect our sacred sites, land, water, air, natural resources, the health of both our people and all living things, and to build economically sustainable communities.
Learn more here: ienearth.org : [link removed]



 
 
Learn more here: ienearth.org : [link removed]
 
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The Indigenous Environmental Network - PO Box 485 - Bemidji - MN - 56619

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