The Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) together with representatives of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), the German Technical Cooperation (GIZ) and the Ministries of Health and Culture visited the headquarters of the National Amazonian University of Madre de Dios, Peru, to coordinate actions prior to the “Second International Meeting of Community Health Agents: Our Territory, Our Health”, to be held on October 12 and 13.
The National Amazonian University of Madre de Dios will provide the infrastructure, located in the city of Puerto Maldonado, Madre de Dios, to gather health agents, protection agents and forest rangers, who work in the Amazon Basin.
The objective of the meeting aims to promote the exchange of ancestral knowledge and interculturality in health care for indigenous peoples. More than 60 indigenous representatives from ACTO member countries are expected to participate. In addition, it will be sponsored by governmental institutions, civil society and indigenous organizations.
Background
The First Regional Meeting of Amazonian Indigenous Community Health Agents: “Our Territory, Our Health” was held in Puyo, Ecuador, on May 30 and 31, with the aim of strengthening collective learning, collaboration and the leading role of indigenous community health agents from Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
The representatives of the public health institutions of the ACTO Member Countries concluded on the importance of promoting the continuous training of health promoters and agents, based on each community’s and indigenous people’s definition of the course subjects and that the trainees may also be the trainers.
