In a new mission in Rondônia, the NGO Amazon Doctors has already assisted more than 1,200 indigenous people

Iury Lima – Cenarium Magazine

VILHENA (RO) – Back to the State of Rondônia, the non-governmental organization Doctors of the Amazon bets on science to provide the most modern health treatments for indigenous populations. This Thursday, the fifth day of the mission, the NGO surpassed the target of services: at least 1,230 members of native peoples have already been provided with various types of procedures.

The action, which counts with 35 volunteers, happens in partnership with the Special District of Indigenous Health (Dsei) of Vilhena (RO), as well as companies and entities such as the National Foundation of the Indian (Funai) and the Association of Ethnoenvironmental Defense Kanindé, which is a reference in Rondonia in the protection of forest peoples. The indigenous people received dental procedures, medical consultations, psychological care, pharmaceutical and nursing assistance, as well as physiotherapy and other services.

The services will last until next Saturday, 22nd, especially contemplating the residents of the Sete de Setembro indigenous land, where 28 villages of the Paiter Suruí ethnic group are located, between the municipalities of Cacoal, in the interior of Rondônia, and Rondolândia, in Mato Grosso. It is all free and open to 11 other ethnic groups, such as the Aikanã, Apurinã, Arara, Cinta Larga, Akuntsú, Nambiquara and others.

Science Breaking Frontiers

“The partnership with Doctors of the Amazon for the Surui people is very important”, says Chief Almir Surui. He says that among the main needs of the nearly 1,800 inhabitants of the territory are “the emergency need for dental care and eye exams” and that, with the various other specialties provided by the NGO’s volunteers, everyone is very satisfied.

The Doctors of the Amazon take health care as the main pillar of the voluntary cause. For this reason, they serve this region of the state, with visits made at least once a year, in addition to traveling around the Legal Amazon. In Rondônia alone, they have been working for at least eight years.

The possibility of breaking barriers, through science, is what moves, for example, dentist Sônia Casanova: “Once again we are bringing state-of-the-art technology for the treatment of indigenous people”, she expressed with joy. She uses a piece of equipment known as CAD/CAM, “the best in terms of prosthetics”, she explains. With this technology, she can improve the design and creation of prosthetics and dental restorations.

“So we can do rehabilitation, prevention, root canal treatment. We also use the ‘x-ray’ system with mechanized endodontics (…) What seduces me the most, besides bringing health to a people that has a great difficulty in reaching the big centers to find treatment, is the technology, the science, the fact that we can bring the best. Science can reach anywhere. With the level of technology and development that we have today, we can get anywhere, even in the middle of the Amazon”, Casanova pointed out.

With other equipment, such as a milling machine, also taken to TI Sete de Setembro, which allows finishing the parts with high precision, the specialists shorten the prosthesis production time. What would take up to three days for molding and production in the laboratory is solved in a matter of 15 minutes.

Difficult access to health care

Located in the rural zone of Cacoal, a municipality almost 500 kilometers from Porto Velho, it is in the Lapetanha Village where the actions are concentrated in this new mission. The town even has an airport, but the Doctors of the Amazon face a bus trip of approximately 10 hours to be able to provide the free services. A daily difficulty suffered by those who fall ill in the villages in the interior of Rondônia: transportation and vacancies in hospitals.

“They [the indigenous people] have to have this opportunity and we have to have a special look at them. Their fight is unequal, when, basically, there are a little more than 840 thousand indigenous people [in the whole country], compared to about 209 million Brazilians. So, we need to focus on this Amazon region, this region where it is very difficult to get health care”, declared the president of the NGO Doctors of the Amazon, Caio Machado.

“When we promote health in these regions, we are able to prove to the public authorities that, in the 21st century, it is indeed possible to develop quality care. With health, we will also be able to preserve the Amazon, because without health nobody does anything”, added Machado.

Actions for the future

Besides having already attended more than a thousand indigenous people, according to the original goal, the volunteer doctors have delivered, this week, more than 400 prescription glasses for those with vision problems, after ophthalmologic exams. But it doesn’t stop there. Another forecast is to formalize a partnership, through the NGO, with the Hospital of Love, based in São Paulo, focused on the prevention and treatment of cancer.

“To give continuity to this project, we are trying to establish a term of cooperation and we are dialoguing, in an attempt to bring this hospital to a village in the Sete de Setembro Indigenous Land. It will be a historical moment, where the partnership will work to improve the health of the indigenous peoples in the Amazon”, revealed Almir Suruí.

The organization

Initially called Doctors without Borders, the non-governmental organization was founded by physician Caio Machado in 2014, after he participated in actions in riverside communities in Porto Velho. The goal has remained the same ever since: to transform access to Brazilian indigenous health, respecting the ancestry, culture, and values passed down from generation to generation by native peoples.

Today, the NGO, besides carrying out missions throughout the Legal Amazon, offers telemedicine services, something that was very important, including during the most critical period of the Covid-19 pandemic, when the majority of the Indigenous Lands adhered to voluntary and absolute isolation due to lack of assistance from the federal government.

In the baggage, there are already almost 30 missions carried out in indigenous lands of difficult access, in the Amazon biome, totaling 291 days of incursion, with more than 15 thousand medical procedures and 31 thousand dental procedures, for example. A total of 64 thousand free actions.

(Doutores da Amazônia/Reprodução)

(Doutores da Amazônia/Reprodução)

(Doutores da Amazônia/Reprodução)

(Doutores da Amazônia/Reprodução)

(Doutores da Amazônia/Reprodução)

(Doutores da Amazônia/Reprodução)

(Doutores da Amazônia/Reprodução)

Learn more about the NGO’s actions during the pandemic