On Indigenous Peoples' Day (April 19), the Minister of Health, Marcelo Queiroga, visited the "Sesai More Indigenous Health" action that took place at the Lago Caracaranã Regional Center, Raposa region, the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land. On the occasion, a committee of leaders representing 342 indigenous communities belonging to the Macuxi, Wapichana, Wai-Wai, Ingarikó, Taurepang, Sapará and Patamona peoples, covered by the Special Indigenous Sanitary District East of Roraima, with a population of more than 56,600 people, delivered a letter in which they ask for urgent measures on the situation of indigenous health in Roraima.
In addition to delivering the document, the leaders also had a meeting with the minister to address other demands in the area of indigenous health. They mainly demanded improvements in service and a more incisive stance from the authorities against illegal mining that has harmed care in the Yanomami Indigenous Land. They also asked the Minister to alert President Jair Bolsonaro about the impacts that mining takes into the indigenous lands of Roraima.
In which they reinforce the urgency and need to hold the VI National Conference on Indigenous Health, which is a space for discussion and deliberation of indigenous peoples in relation to indigenous health policy.
Leader Aldenir Wapichana at the delivery of the document on health in the Raposa Serra do Sol Indigenous Land.
The document highlights that differentiated health care for indigenous peoples is a right conquered in the Federal Constitution of 1988, and regulated by Law No. 9,836 of 1999, known as the Arouca Law, which establishes the Indigenous Health Care Subsystem of the Unified Health System (SUS) based on the Special Indigenous Health Districts under the responsibility of the Federal Government.
The creation of the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (SESAI) in 2010 was the result of this struggle and the need to have a qualified body in the Ministry of Health to respond to the serious health problems that affect the indigenous peoples of Brazil.
One of the denunciations in the document is the absolute collapse of the indigenous health of the Yanomami and Ye'kwana peoples who live in a war scenario, with the death of children from malnutrition and malaria, the lack of assistance for the removal and rescue of indigenous people, the reduction by half of the flight hours necessary to serve the communities, the lack of coordination between the federated entities for the proper care and protection of indigenous health, the diversion of funds intended for Yanomami indigenous health.
The leaders expect the Federal Government to respect the specificities of the indigenous peoples of Brazil.
Letter to the Minister Saúde_19.04.2022
Photos: Archive of the leaders.