Whilst Amazon.com might be going great guns during the Coronavirus pandemic, indigenous people, the Guardians of the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and Colombia, are not. Millions died when influenza was brought into South America during the European conquests. COVID-19 could easily spread out of control in remote areas of the Amazon, where ventilators and other medical assistance might be literally hundreds of difficult miles away.
Aqua-Firma partner charity, Rainforest Concern, has launched an Emergency Appeal to provide isolation kits, designed together with indigenous leaders and shamans in Colombia to secure voluntary community isolation during the peak of the pandemic. This kit supports the indigenous families' way of life, avoiding the need to go into towns, and includes items to provide food security as well as hygiene and household items.
In Brazil, Rainforest Concern's support will focus on helping the indigenous people of the Xingu region to be self-sufficient, reducing contact by bringing in food supplies, as well as providing hygiene and health supplies.
Aqua-Firma has made a donation, in part thanks to people who have booked to join our Cloud Forest trip to Ecuador next April, hosted by BBC Presenter and Rainforest Concern Ecologist, Mike Dilger (@DilgerTV)
For further details about how you can donate, please visit:
