Four tons of food are distributed to Yanomami communities

Yanimami

This is an action by the federal government as an emergency response to the health crisis.

This weekend, the Brazilian Air Force (FAB) transported around 4 tons of food to be distributed to a community in the Yanomami Indigenous Land, in Roraima. This is an action by the federal government as an emergency response to the health crisis that led the Ministry of Health to declare, last Friday (20), a Public Health Emergency of National Importance.

This allowed the Executive Power to adopt, as a matter of urgency, measures of “prevention, control and containment of risks, damages and harms to public health”.

According to the Air Force, on Saturday (21), President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited Boa Vista, capital of Roraima, on which occasion the equivalent of 1.26 tons of food was transported to be distributed to the Kataroa community, in region known as Surucucu, and on Sunday (22), there were over 2.50 tons.

According to the Ministry of Health, the supplies are part of the approximately 5,000 basic baskets that were stored at the headquarters of the regional coordination of the National Foundation for Indigenous Peoples (Funai), in Boa Vista.

Of the total already available, 4,000 baskets will be destined for the Yanomami Indigenous Land and 1,000 will go to other communities. In addition, the federal government announced the delivery of 200 cans of food supplements for children of different ages.

According to the federal government, more than 30,400 indigenous people live in the area that the Union allocates for the exclusive use of the Yanomami.

Motivated by accusations that the illegal activity of miners is contaminating the rivers that supply the local communities, destroying the forest and affecting the survival conditions of the populations, the federal government sent technicians from the Ministry of Health that found malnourished children and elderly people, many weighing less than the recommended minimum.

There were also people with malaria, acute respiratory infections and other illnesses, without receiving any kind of medical assistance.

Read more:

Registration open for volunteer work by health professionals in the Yanomami territory