Bolivia: Technical Mission to Madidi region will dialogue with indigenous leaders and Public Health personnel

The technical team of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) started on Monday, December 12th, the technical mission to the town of San Buenaventura and the Madidi Region, in Bolivia, within the framework of the project “Contingency Plan for Health Protection in Highly Vulnerable Indigenous Peoples and Initial Contact” of ACTO, which is implemented jointly with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and with the support of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB). 

This is the fourth mission carried out in the Amazon region under the project actions and involves the participation of consultants Rodrigo Tarquino, and Fritz Villasante, with the collaboration of Marcos Uzquiano, led by the Project Coordinator Carlos Macedo.

The activities of this mission to the Madidi Park region, on the Bolivia-Peru border, include visits to indigenous communities in Torewa, of the Tacana Indigenous People, T’simane, Mosetene, and Ese Ejja, as well as the Eyoyiquibo community of the Ese Ejja Indigenous People. 

Dialogues with Indigenous leaders and public health service personnel will also be carried out with the aim of validating the data and information identified in the Health Situational Study based on existing literature and, mainly, based on the field experiences of the consultants. In the border region, ACTO technicians were able to build a diagnostic document on the health status of indigenous peoples surrounding the Madidi National Park in Bolivia and the Bahuaja Sonene National Park in Peru.

The actions are being coordinated with the Protected Areas Protection Service (SERNAP) which manages the protected areas and establishes a relationship between neighboring protected areas on the border between Peru and Bolivia. Likewise, coordination is taking place with the San Buenaventura Hospital, which provides medical services to the Eyoyiquibo Indigenous Community, San José de Uchupimonas, and some Tacana communities.

The work agenda received support from the Bolivian Foreign Ministry and the Ministry of Health, Traditional Medicine Directorate.

The visits will be accompanied by the officials from Madidi National Park, as well as doctors from the San Buenaventura Hospital. It is expected to deliver three communication radios to the populations of San Miguel de Bala, San Buenaventura, and San José de Uchupiamonas, which will be installed in the health centers of these populations. Finally, some of the data and information obtained from the diagnosis and through interviews with key actors in the region will be adjusted.