On October 27, 2020, the live marked the launch of the project Support for Indigenous Peoples of the Brazilian Amazon in preventing Covid-19 and mitigating its impacts, a partnership between UNICEF Brazil, the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab) and the Leonidas and Maria Deane Institute, Fiocruz Amazon.

The project coordinated by researcher Michele El Kadri carries out activities in five states of the Brazilian Amazon: Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Pará e Rondônia. The actions take place in eight ethnographic areas chosen in dialogue with the indigenous peoples and based on epidemiological criteria related to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Coiab is active in the actions with the indigenous communities, with the distribution of hygiene kits against Covid-19 and the young people and children mobilization. Fiocruz Amazon, in turn, is responsible for a study to promote a better understanding of the realities experienced by indigenous youth in the pandemic context, in addition to developing a training program aimed at professionals who work with these peoples, discussing topics related to mental health and violence against children and adolescents, for example.

Fiotec is responsible for the administrative, logistical, and financial management of the project, and heard from health psychologist Michele El Kadri, who coordinates the activities carried out by Fiocruz Amazônia:

Nowadays Fiocruz is already acting in the areas served by the project? What stage are the planned actions at?

We were given the responsibility of conducting a diagnostic study, a strategy called the Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices Survey [KAP] of indigenous peoples about mental health and social safety net in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. Another activity was the refresher course for health, social assistance, and education professionals on mental health in these communities.

Fiocruz Amazon has already been developing several teaching and research actions with indigenous peoples, but the innovation of this initiative was the focus on mental health and coverage to eight regions, reaching 94 peoples in five states of the Brazilian Amazon.

In practice, how will the CAP Survey promote mental health and psychosocial support among indigenous peoples?

The results can subsidize future interventions, whether by the public authorities, or by initiatives from other organizations including the indigenous associations themselves, which have been working hard on prevention and vaccination actions in these communities. Preliminary data from this study pointed out, for example, that the use of masks, alcohol gel, and hand washing have not been strategies recurrently used by the communities as prevention forms. We do not know if the non-use of protection happens only inside the community or also outside. More research is needed on this issue, as well as on the access that these people have had to such means of prevention.

Has the training of professionals who work with these people started? Which topics will be covered?

The course started on January 18 and the participants had until March 20 to complete the six modules. The training is hosted on the Fiocruz Virtual Campus and features: 1. Introductory module; 2. Self-care practices and community strategies; 3. Children, youth, and elders; 4. Violence; 5. Alcohol and other drugs; 6. Suicide.

The target audience was professionals from the health, education, and social protection sectors, as well as community leaders.

The pandemic has created obstacles of all kinds. Has the project succeeded in mobilizing the indigenous youth and professionals who work with these peoples?

In fact, the main challenge has been connectivity. Given the need for isolation, even for the communities’ protection, the activities were conducted at a distance. For the CAP Survey, the project relied on young scholarship leaders from the communities. In all eight areas, they applied 533 questionnaires.

For the course [with health professionals], we had 2,544 registered from all states in Brazil, plus Colombia, UK, USA, Peru, Italy, Uruguay, Chile, and Germany. Specifically for the eight priority areas in the Amazon, we had tutors who sent the modules and video lessons weekly via WhatsApp for those with difficulty in accessing the online platform regularly.

The project foresees activities until when? Is there a specific duration or is the idea to remain present in these communities?

Now we are working mainly on the final products to disseminate the results: the CAP Survey report, editing and printing of the book with the course content, an institutional video, and academic articles with reports on the successful experience of reaching such communities in a context of restricted circulation and connectivity in the Amazon. The final products will be delivered by the first half of April.

However, UNICEF has already signaled our interest in continuing the partnership based on the intervention needs identified by the project.