OUR WORK DURING THE PANDEMIC
When the pandemic and quarantine began, we decided to change our activities temporarily and focus completely on delivering food kits, Covid-19 tests, medicines and oxygen tanks to low-income populations and areas so that people could remain at home and avoid the risk of contagion. Also, patients who lived in remote places far from hospitals or health centers received medicines and oxygen tanks to reduce the risk of mortality due to Covid-19 until they could access treatment.
To achieve this, we created the campaign “With Your Help I Stay at Home” designed to deliver food kits to the Coast and the Amazon.
From March 17 to August 17, USD 1,018,517.00 were raised. Of that amount, USD 886,056 was used to deliver food and medical supplies. 21,065 food kits have been delivered in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, Napo, Sucumbíos and Orellana.
The balance of the money raised is being used to purchase additional medicines and other medical equipment that have yet to be distributed.
Through Fundación Raíz Ecuador, and together with the Por Todos trust, led by the businessman Roque Sevilla, we built the Atacames Covid Respiratory Care Center at a cost of USD 122,500.00.
Emergency Management Report COVID 19 from March 17 to August 17, 2020.
Food Delivery
Fundación Raíz Ecuador y CAEMBA
Through August 17, we delivered 21,065 food kits together with medical supplies in the provinces of Esmeraldas, Manabí, Napo, Sucumbíos and Orellana. Initially, the focus of the campaign was directed at CAEMBA beneficiaries in Esmeraldas and Manabí. However, due to the extension of the quarantine, Fundación Raíz extended aid to other neighborhoods, towns and communities not yet covered by CAEMBA in Atacames and Esmeraldas cantons, in the province of Esmeraldas, and San Isidro in Sucre canton in the province of Manabí.
Covid Respiratory Care Center of Atacames
Fundación Raíz Ecuador and the “Por Todos” trust, led by the Quito businessman Roque Sevilla, built the Covid Respiratory Care Center of Atacames at a cost of USD 122,500.00
This is a primary hospital care facility with intermediate care capacity. It has six beds equipped with oxygen and two type 1 hospital beds with five positions for patients who are in a more serious condition.
Delivery of medicines in the Amazon
Thanks to a joint effort by Fundación Raíz, the Coordinator of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin (COICA) and the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of the Amazon (CONFENIAE), medical supplies and medicines have been delivered to different indigenous communities of the Amazon. These two organizations carried out medical journeys where they worked with these vulnerable populations.
Medicines and medical supplies were delivered in the province of Morona Santiago, in different Shuar and Achuar communities in the Taisha canton, in the Sevilla Don Bosco parish, and in the Bomboiza parish in Gualaquiza. In the Napo province, these supplies were delivered in the Chontapunta parish and in the Quijos canton in Kichwa and Wao communities. Supplies were also delivered in Sucumbíos province in the Lago Agrio, Shushufindi, and Cuyabeno cantons in Siona, Secoya, Kofan, Kichwa and Shuar communities. In Orellana, these medicines were delivered to the Kichwa, Shuar and Wao nationalities. Finally, in Zamora Chinchipe province, supplies were delivered in the capital, Zamora, and in El Pangui and Yantzatza cantons.
Oxygen tanks
Likewise, we have delivered 211 oxygen tanks to remote locations in the Amazon, in Cotopaxi and at the Covid Center for Respiratory Care in Atacames.
We delivered 30 oxygen concentrators, 20 oxygen tanks and 40,000 masks to the Movimiento Indígena y Campesino de Cotopaxi (MICC), which is led by Leonidas Iza.
Learn more about oxygen tank deliveries at this link.
More areas where we work
The area where we delivered the food kits was expanded to other communities of the Chachi indigenous nationality in two cantons of Esmeraldas. The first one was Quinindé, where the delivery was coordinated with Roberto Añapa, local Chachi leader. For deliveries in the communities near the Borbón river basin, in the Eloy Alfaro canton, it was coordinated with ECODES.
Likewise, in alliance with the “Por Todos” trust, led by the Quito businessman Roque Sevilla, and other donors, we raised USD 1,018,507.00 through August 17th, 2020. This has served to maintain and increase the coverage of the campaign in more neighborhoods, communities and towns in the five provinces where we worked.
Starting in early April we widened the spectrum of our activities. We started the delivery of food kits in the Amazon, in various communities of the Secoya, Kichwa, Cofán, Shuar and Siekopai indigenous nationalities. This was done within the framework of Assisted Social Distancing which aims to preserve the health and life of the most vulnerable: the elderly, the grandparents who preserve the millenary cultural tradition of these indigenous nationalities and who know about the use of medicinal plants, the ecology of the Amazon forest, the ancestral worldview and other ancient knowledge.
Purchase of Covid-19 rapid tests
We purchased 2,900 Covid-19 rapid tests which were taken to the inhabitants of various Siekopai and Chachi indigenous communities and to the beneficiaries of the CAEMBA project in the Atacames canton in Esmeraldas. We have a holistic medical care view for these populations that suffer marginalization from society and the State.
Biosafety protocol
In accordance with the established biosafety protocol, food was delivered in open spaces of the communities. Each kit contained prophylactics that families used to disinfect the kits before they entered their homes.