CORONAVIRUS: Radio equipment for the Waiãpi

All over the world, people are following the call #WirBleibenZuhause to protect themselves and others from the novel #Coronavirus. While we in Germany are gradually returning to a new normal, Brazil is experiencing its most difficult phase. Indigenous peoples are particularly at risk.

TARGET e. V. was contacted by the people of the #Waiãpi. They don't just want to stay at home, they want to retreat deep into the jungle and isolate themselves. To this end, they asked TARGET e. V. for short-wave radios. They want to take these with them and install them in villages deep in the jungle so that they can stay in touch. They also want to be able to quickly report possible cases of illness and call for help.

"The Waiãpi need us. And we need them because they protect the Amazon rainforest, which is so important to the global community. If they retreat deeper into the forest, this is not only a preventive measure against Covid-19. It also helps to protect the borders and the forest on a broad scale. Communication via radio is therefore also strategically important after Corona. To report intruders, request help, get politically important news. The radios will now support life deep in the forest on an ad hoc basis, but also permanently," Sophie Weber from TARGET e. V.

The Waiãpi protected area borders the structurally weak municipality of Pedra Branca do Amaparí, where 367 cases of the new coronavirus were already confirmed on 29 May. The municipality announced on 12 May: "We are 16,000 inhabitants, if 10% were infected with Covid-19, we would have 1,600 cases, if 5% of them needed an intensive care bed, we are talking about 80 beds - which we don't have. Stay at home!"

TARGET e. V. is now purchasing radio equipment including solar panels, antennas and batteries. Around EUR 6,000 is needed for this Exra project. The Waiãpi have already completed an installation course. Now they are waiting for the urgently needed devices to shield themselves from the outside world for an indefinite period of time.

BACKGROUND INFO:
Since 2002, we have been supporting the Waiãpi people in their desire to live independently in the Amazon rainforest. Healthcare, education and border protection are TARGET's local issues. On an untouched area of jungle the size of half of Schleswig-Holstein, 2,000 Waiãpi live in a traditional, original way. Due to contact with non-indigenous people, dangers are omnipresent: intruders in search of gold, wood, fish and game, but also diseases that find their way through the tropical thicket.

The Facebook fundraiser can be found here.