Brazilian Indians celebrate creation of their own health service

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Tribal peoples all over Brazil are celebrating the creation of a new branch of the Ministry of Health which will be responsible for providing health care to the country’s Indians.

The Brazilian Senate voted unanimously to approve the new body, to be called the ‘Indigenous Health Secretariat’, following years of campaigning by Indians and organizations supporting them.

The Senate’s decision is a landmark victory for the Indians, and prompted celebrations amongst members of several tribes who had gathered in Brasília to hear the vote.

The Indians hope that the new organization, by focusing solely on Indigenous communities, will be able to provide a more efficient health care service than the heavily-discredited system to which they currently have access.

Edmilson Terena of the Terena tribe said, ‘We have to reorganize a system which has fallen into chaos in the last ten years. Now, things are set to improve’.

Clóvis Ambrósio of the Wapixana tribe added, ‘Now we must start planning to change everything. By the end of the year we need to have planned out our new health system in the Secretariat’.

The Indigenous Health Secretariat will take over from the work of the National Health Foundation (FUNASA), which has been accused of corruption and criticized for not adequately serving the Indians’ needs.

FUNASA was recently involved in a scandal in which thousands of Yanomami Indians in the Amazon were cut off from medical assistance for over two months.

Senator Lúcia Vânia, who voted in favor of the measure, said, ‘The government is taking a step forward by creating a new Secretariat in the Ministry of Health and ensuring that Indigenous peoples can enjoy a high standard of health care’.