Outreach Programs

 
 

MATERNAL & CHILDREN WELFARE (Emberá-Wounaan- Panamá)

Our goal is to help women, but also whole families in the Darién indigenous Emberá & Wounaan communities and others, to get familiar with importance of family planning, proper maternal care and to enable them to gain access to education, medical aid, regular checkups and support during and after pregnancy.

We are raising funds so they can access transport, food and accommodation while in the town/city attending doctors, medical supplies, baby care products and food, access to education, etc… aiming to reduce the amount of disabilities and health issues in the communities, specially among the children. Read more

SEND A SMALL GIFT TO AN UNDER-PRIVILEGED CHILD (Panamá)

As we approach the 2022 giving season and New Year, we want to pay special tribute to those who need our attention and support the most. 

To do this, we need your help. We need Community.

Let's provide the underprivileged kids from Panamanian indigenous communities with a holiday season to remember! 

The smallest gift can go a long way.  In just a few clicks you can donate according to your circumstances starting from a symbolic $3! 

We'll direct those towards the holiday festivity and gifts for more than 900 indigenous kids, living under the poverty line in remote areas of Panama. 

Read more

SHELTERING DISPLACED NGABE-BUGLÉ FAMILIES (Panamá)

In July 2021 we got a call for urgent help from a Ngäbe-Buglé community in the Tabasará River area belonging to their indigenous autonomous territory (Comarca). Many families, including elders and kids, have been forcibly moved, while their homes have been burned or bulldozed down.

We are building temporary shelters for 83 people who are living rough on the muddy ground, under tarps with heavy tropical rain. More resources are needed to provide shelters, facilities and other basic necessities for these struggling indigenous families.
Read more

Erutilia’s Story

 

By Geoparadise Inc

 
 

THE SITUATION:

The main project we are currently working on, Indigenous Maternal & Children Welfare is focused on supporting indigenous mothers and their babies and enabling them access to medical care.

We will share more insights from the lives of tribal families we are working with, in our section “Stories from my village”

This time we are telling you the story of Rosalba, Erutilia and her baby. 

Before we start sharing their story, we have to admit that our team was hesitant to disclose the entire story of these brave women, especially since it is a specifically sensitive situation. 

However, it is hard, even impossible to help fundraise for someone without telling the story. We are sharing with you just some glimpses into their world, to better understand their situation.  

Erutilia is 32 and was born with Down syndrome and unable to read, write or talk.

She has a little daughter called Senen, who was "given" to her forcefully by a neighbour...

Erutilias's mother Rosalba, who is 74 years old, takes care of both Senen and Erutilia.

With all these circumstances as bad as they are for this humble, innocent and loving little family, there is another struggle they are facing. 

Since birth, baby Senen suffers from potentially dangerous deformation in her intestinal and urinary tract, which is rare and occurs in about 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 25,000 newborn female babies.

During previous weeks, we took this brave little trio to see a specialist in Panama City.

We’ve received some good news from the doctor, saying that Senen’s surgery, which until now seemed inevitable, could be postponed and is even potentially not needed anymore! 

However, she will still need to see the doctor regularly for her checkups and meet with specialists who help Erutilia and Senen to start off with their cognitive skills advancements. Through practice with didactic toys and trained staff, after some time they can hopefully continue at home. 

Our goal is to gather enough monthly donations to fund for Senen’s and her Mom’s upcoming doctor's checkups in the City.

All our trips to the communities we work with require 4x4 car rental and generate additional fuel expenses, including those for the boat ride that will take our team through a pretty rough journey into the depths of the jungle, to reach Erutilia and her family, and then make the journey back, twice.

They could also use the mattress, bed and educational toys and learning aid.

Please, let’s show some love for these three generations of women, each with their heartbreaking story and join Rosalba, Erutilia and Senen in their march for a better life. 

Support their cause! 

P.S. Time is critical with this fundraiser, especially due to Rosalba's age. Erutilia and her baby need to gain more independence and learn how to take care of themselves, for times when Rosalba won't be able to continue being their caretaker.

With no family to take her and the child in when grandma passes, and her abuser living just a few meters away from her home, we have mobilised all our forces to help as much as we can, but with the community’s support, we can achieve so much more! Please consider donating, even the smallest donation goes a long way!

 
 
 
 
 

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A huge thanks to all our loyal global family, who has been supporting us in our efforts to secure better living conditions for the indigenous peoples of Latin America over this and the past year! We couldn't do it without your help!

 
 

URGENT! HELP A FAMILY REBUILD THEIR HOME AFTER DISASTER (Nicaragua)

This October we received a distress call from Maritza Centeno from the Matagalpa community in Nicaragua, one of the Indigenous Invitees at our annual fundraising, educational and intercultural event Tribal Gathering.


Her sister's humble home was destroyed last weekend when a huge tree fell over it and completely crushed it, injuring one of her 5 children, and rushing him to the hospital. We hope for the best outcome and more news, but in the meantime, the children are in distress and are sleeping outside the house. 

Maritza asked us if we could possibly organise a crowdfunding or a donation campaign to help her sister's family home be rebuilt. It is essential to clear everything up from the rubble and then rebuild, and temporary accommodation will be needed for the struggling family. 

We are setting a reasonable goal of 5000 USD which we firmly believe together we can achieve. There is a possibility to join this campaign as a fundraiser yourself and share it through your networks, and/or to donate here. 

Please let us all gather in this little act of love and empathy for this Indigenous family living on the land, who now lost everything!

Any donation gets us a step closer to the goal, of a safe simple home for this family.

EMERGENCY DROUGHT RELIEF AYMARA LLAMA HERDERS (Bolivia)

The situation:

We were contacted by our dear friend and Tribal Gathering’s indigenous delegate for the Aymara people of Bolivia - Tomas Huanacu Tito. His distress call came just right before COP26 and is another loud climate alarm we should all take quite seriously!

His community is currently facing a massive drought, lasting for months now. It is admittedly the biggest one that the Aymara people can remember.

Although these hardworking and modest llama herders have impressively adapted to living conditions at such altitudes, the 21st century has taken it beyond the extreme!

Due to the disturbing consequences of climate change, the whole region has turned into a desert with dried-out wells, hardly any vegetation and its people and animals thirsty for water.

Tomás’s ancestral home is located in the Andean plateau - Altiplano, at 3800 m above sea level. His community is called ‘Parcomarca Copacabana’ and is one out of seven communities in the region of Copacabana de Andamarca, close to the Chilean border and west to Lake Poopó - which also doesn’t carry any more water due to climate change and mining industry sediment buildup!

One hundred and four (104) families from this Aymara community sustain themselves by herding and trading llamas and are traditionally dependent on their existence. Seasonal droughts are known to the Aymara and usually occur during November and December. Aymaras use ancestral rituals and perform offerings to ask for rain. However, this year there was hardly any rain in their territory and while their prayers seem to be left unanswered, even their sacred water crater got completely dry! This never happened before and is considered a particularly bad omen among the people there.

Tomás explains that this situation only continues to progress, becoming much worse every year. Without any rainfall, there is neither vegetation nor any water for the llamas and many of these precious creatures are dying daily. Without llamas, there wouldn’t be any Aymaras either, as the conditions at such heights don’t allow for many alternatives when it comes to sustenance and making a living.

Please Support Us On Our Mission:

The only option for the Parcomarca Copacabana community (besides complete relocation and desertion of their ancestral land, which can hopefully be avoided) is to dig each of the existing wells deeper in the hope to find some water.

On average, It takes more than five hours to excavate each well and the cost of renting an excavator is $50 per hour.

When this gets multiplied by the number of households affected, plus $250 for the transport, the final sum makes this quite a challenging project.

We need to raise funds to excavate as many wells as possible if we want to save the llamas and consequently all the 104 native families living there.

Our goal is to fundraise up to a rough estimate of USD $26,000. We are confident that with your support and solidarity this mission will be a success, just like the previous ones!

PLEASE SHARE THIS FUNDRAISER WITH YOUR NETWORKS AND FRIENDS!