BOLIVIA: INDIGENOUS YUQUI TRIBE FACING EXTINCTION FROM POOR SANITATION AND DISEASE.
Record ID:
647184
BOLIVIA: INDIGENOUS YUQUI TRIBE FACING EXTINCTION FROM POOR SANITATION AND DISEASE.
- Title: BOLIVIA: INDIGENOUS YUQUI TRIBE FACING EXTINCTION FROM POOR SANITATION AND DISEASE.
- Date: 26th August 2005
- Summary: (L!3) MBIA RECUATÉ, BOLIVIA (RECENT) (REUTERS) 1. WOODEN RAFT ON CHIMORE RIVER ON WAY TO YUQUI VILLAGE 2. WOODEN RAFT NAVIGATING THE CHIMORE RIVER TOWARDS MBIA RECAUTE, YUQUI VILLAGE 3. RAFT AND ITS OCCUPANTS 4. FACE OF AN INDIGENOUS YUQUI ON THE RAFT 5. JUNGLE AROUND THE CHIMORE RIVER 6. RAFT ARRIVING AT MBIA RECAUTE, WHICH MEANS "THE PEOPLE'S TOWN" IN THE YUQUI LANGUAGE 7. LIGHT FILTERING THROUGH TREES IN JUNGLE ON WAY TO MBIA RECAUTE 8. VARIOUS OF YUQUI FAMILY COOKING FOOD AND REPAIRING THEIR ARROWS FOR HUNTING, FACES OF MAN AND WOMAN FROM YUQUI COMMUNITY 9. VARIOUS OF YUQUI CHILD NAKED IN MIDDLE OF RUBBISH BEING DRESSED BY HIS MOTHER 10. YUQUI WOMEN GATHERED AROUND A FIRE MAKING CRAFTS 11. DIRTY POT ON THE FIRE IN WHICH MEAT IS BEING FRIED 12. VARIOUS OF YUQUI CHILDREN SITTING ON THE GROUND EATING FROM POT WITH THEIR HANDS 13. DOG LOOKING FOR THE REMAINS OF FOOD AROUND A YUQUI HUT 14. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish and Yuqui) INDIGENOUS YUQUI, OSCAR YAIRA, SAYING: "My whole family has tuberculosis." 15. YUQUI FAMILY COOKING IN MIDDLE OF RUBBISH 16. HEALTH STATION FROM THE INTEGRAL HEALTH PROJECT (PROSIN), SUBSIDISED BY BOLIVIAN AND US GOVERNMENTS 17. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DOCTOR TENE GUTIERREZ, SAYING: "Tuberculosis is reducing a lot of lives in the Yuqui community at the moment." 18. YUQUI WOMAN COUGHING IN FRONT OF FIRE WHERE SHE IS COOKING 19. YUQUI BABY WITH TUBERCULOSIS COUGHING 20. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) DOCTOR TENE GUTIERREZ, SAYING: "There is abandonment of treatment, and we know when there is abandonment of treatment it comes back resistant to the medication and it's difficult, difficult afterwards, to cure, and this is what has happened with the people who died." 21. WOMAN WITH TUBERCULOSIS BEING ATTENDED TO AT HEALTH STATION 22. MAN GROWING YUCA ON GROUNDS OF THE NINE TRIBES EVANGELIST RESERVE (VARIOUS) 23. YUQUI CRAFTSMAN MAKING A WOODEN PLANE 24. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) INDIGENOUS YUQUI, JACOB GUAGUAZU, SAYING: "I wish I could work with my companions. There are some companions who are not for working much, they resist working. At least when one wants to have things, you do it and you have it, you see?" 25. VARIOUS OF MISSIONARY DRIVING A TRACTOR, PLAYING WITH THE TRIBES CHILDREN 26. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) MISSIONARY OF THE NINE TRIBES, MARIANO ICHU, SAYING: "There is a lot of different influence from other cultures from outside and many of the Yuquis are adopting cultures that are not theirs. So the situation a little complicated." 27. VARIOUS OF SOCIOLOGIST ROSEMARY CABALLERO MEETING WITH YUQUI MEN, PLANNING STRATEGIES TO HELP 28. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) SOCIOLOGIST, ROSEMARY CABALLERO, SAYING: "It would be terrible for humanity for a people to disappear, wouldn't it? A people so rich in values, in customs, to disappear." 29. YUQUI CHILDREN PLAYING IN PARK WITH BOWS AND ARROWS (VARIOUS) 30. CHILDREN BATHING IN CHIMORE RIVER (VARIOUS) Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 10th September 2005 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: MBIA RECAUTE, BOLIVIA
- Country: Bolivia
- Reuters ID: LVA6V0O08JUWDZWJUS8MNSSGU9IM
- Story Text: Bolivia's indigenous Yuqui tribe faces extinction with poor sanitary
conditions and disease spreading through the community.
Deep in the middle of the Bolivian jungle, a forgotten tribe of
indigenous people live on land that spans 120,000 hectares.
They are the Yuquis, a nomadic tribe, and there are just 300 left,
living and dying on this land some 550 kilometres east of La Paz, which has
been legally recognized as their own since the 90s.
Their only settlement within this territory is Mbia Recaute, a name
meaning "The People's Town", on the banks of the Chimore river in
the Amazon forests.
To get there requires a two-hour trip on a canoe down the Chimore river
from the closest town.
The tribe first came into contact with the western world in 1967, and
little is known of their history before this date. Since this time, dozens of
government organizations have tried to save the tribe, threatened by the
increase in coca cultivation in neighbouring el Chapare.
But despite various projects and assistance, conditions for this
dwindling tribe are worsening continuously, and the settlement still has no
drinking water or electricity.
There are now just 270 Yuquis living in Mbia Recaute, most of them
abandoned children and sick adults. Unaccustomed to settling in one place, the
Yuquis don't know how to get rid of the rubbish they produce, and continue to
live in it. They have always used the Chimore river as their source of water,
but this is now contaminated.
As a result, disease is rife. In particular, many are suffering from
tuberculosis and pulmonary mycosis. Oscar Yaira, one of the dwindling
population of Yuquis, said that his entire family had been afflicted with the
disease.
"My whole family has tuberculosis," he said.
The Integral Health programme, financed by the U.S., has an outpost in
the area, but has had little success helping the tribe change their sanitary
habits. Although official statistics are not available, one recent television
report suggested that at least ninety percent of Yuquis have some kind of
illness.
According to Doctor Tene Gutierrez, tuberculosis is the current big
plague.
"Tuberculosis is reducing a lot of lives in the Yuqui community at
the moment," he said.
But working with the tribe of people who cannot sustain themselves and
still reject interference from the outside world has proven difficult.
"There is abandonment of treatment, and we know when there is
abandonment of treatment it comes back resistant to the medication and it's
difficult, difficult afterwards, to cure, and this is what has happened with
the people who died," said Gutierrez.
And despite the large tract of land which the government has granted
this tribe, so far the Yuquis have been unable to cultivate it to any
productive extent.
Nearby towns blame the Yuqui's drunkenness or laziness. But not all the
tribes people are unwilling to work. Jacob Guaguazu hopes to carve out a
living making crafts, but he agrees that not all his fellow tribes people are
willing to do the same.
"I wish I could work with my companions. There are some companions
who are not for working much, they resist working. At least when one wants to
have things, you do it," he said.
A U.S.-financed evangelical mission, called Nine Tribes, continues to
work in the area, having established Mbia Recaute in the 70s. Nine Tribes now
has only one missionary in the area, Mariano Ichu. Ichu believes that much of
the difficulty lies in the cultural mix, with the Yuquis exposed to a variety
of influences.
"There is a lot of different influence from other cultures from
outside and many of the Yuquis are adopting cultures that are not theirs. So
the situation a little complicated," he explained.
But sociologist Rosemary Caballero, is determined to save this ethnic
group. She has been trying to teach families in the area to cultivate the
land, so that they can incorporate some vegetables into their diet.
"It would be terrible for humanity for a people to disappear,
wouldn't it? A people so rich in values, in customs, to disappear," she
said.
But despite efforts from Caballero, who works with Community Habitat
and Finances, a U.S. government financed project, the task of saving the
Yuquis from complete extinction is a difficult one. And the fate of these
nomadic people, recognized for their copper skin tone and almond-shaped eyes
in contrast with the darker skin of most of the areas inhabitants, will
ultimately depend on their own capacity for adaptation and change.
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