The situation in Venezuela is certainly unusual and alarming, but in the midst of the general chaos, good things still happen and help the most desperate ones to keep hope.
For the past four years, a group of indigenous women and I have been working on the creation of a care home for indigenous women in the city of Puerto Ayacucho, the southernmost capital of any federal state of Venezuela. Recently, this project was able to materialize with the opening of the house, where we hope to serve the native population as a priority, but also to provide assistance to the Creole population that requests it.
The day of the opening, we offered a small banquet with typical dishes of the region: ajicero, a fish soup with abundant hot peppers; bachacos, large ants that can be eaten fried and with hot peppers; casabe, a tortilla made from bitter yucca; and fried fish from the Orinoco River and its tributaries. As a drink, we served yucuta, a refreshing drink made from the cereal of yucca flour, known in Venezuelan Castilian as mañoco.
We had special guests, together took a tour of the building, and presented the crowd an alternative and a response to the decaying of Venezuela's public health system.
Our project, the Casa de Atención para las Mujeres Indígenas Amazónicas (Care Center for Indigenous Amazonian Women) sprang from the intention of reducing maternal and child mortality rates in the Amazonas State, whose rate is the second highest among the States of Venezuela, after that of Delta Amacuro State -also with an important percentage of indigenous population-, which makes us suspect that these indicators are higher among the indigenous population as a whole than among the Afro-Venezuelan or Creole. The project also seeks to prevent deaths from cervical cancer, the most common type of cancer among indigenous Venezuelan women, which kills hundreds of women annually. To achieve this, the care home has gynecological equipment to offer free consultations, ultrasounds and cytologies to patients, and give a quick and accurate diagnosis to the poorest and most vulnerable population.
This is the gynaecological consultation room, where we hope to offer a quality medical service with an intercultural approach, respectful of taboos and indigenous conceptions of sexuality, body and disease. Currently, we are faced with the lack of professionals in the area in the city due to the spectacular migration that our country get through; however, we are determined to go on seeking and persevere in our project because the greatest satisfaction is always knowing that we have contributed to improve and even save lives.
Support us or come and meet us to continue planning and building alternatives for this great country!