On the afternoon of October 27th, the live event that marked the launch of the project Support for Indigenous Peoples of the Brazilian Amazon in the prevention of Covid-19 and mitigation of its impacts took place as a result of the partnership between UNICEF Brazil, the Coordination of Indigenous Organizations of the Brazilian Amazon (Coiab), and the Leônidas and Maria Deane Institute, Fiocruz Amazônia. The conversation among representatives of the three entities symbolized the official beginning of the project, after a long journey of discussion, construction, and detailing of each planned action, according to the words of the project coordinator, Thiago Garcia, who acted as mediator of the online meeting.

The launch live event was attended by Anyoli Lopez, UNICEF coordinator in the Amazon, Michele El Kadri, Fiocruz Amazônia researcher, Alana Manchineri, mobilizer of Indigenous Youth in the project, Mariazinha Bare and Nilcelio Jiahui, project manager and secretary coordinator of Coiab, respectively, and Telma Taurepang, coordinator of the Union of Women of the Brazilian Amazon. 

Anyoli Lopez was responsible for the initial speech, in which she greeted the other participants and stressed that the result of months of construction and work is the result of the efforts of entire teams, and not the representatives of the entities, individually. According to her, the project "summarizes what UNICEF considers a priority in the Brazilian Legal Amazon" and is a reason for celebration, despite its beginning being inserted in a moment of global emergency caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The coordinator of the entity in the Amazonian territory also said that the project was not created to simply propose solutions to current problems and then interrupt its actions. According to Anyoli, the project “is the result of UNICEF's work history in the Legal Amazon, prioritizing indigenous peoples on topics such as health, fighting child mortality, and also education”.

Mariazinha Bare, project coordinator at Coiab, then spoke about the challenges involved in a project aimed at indigenous children, youth, and women, and the importance of leading an indigenous movement alongside entities such as UNICEF and Fiocruz. "The pandemic has reached indigenous territories, leaving not only health but also social consequences. For this reason, it is important a project with great partners, which still opens a range of opportunities for the future," she said.

The health psychologist Michele El Kadri, celebrated the result of the conversations and alignments, although, according to her, at the administrative level. The project coordinator at Fiocruz highlighted in her speech the desire for this exchange to be even more fruitful in the next stages of the project, in which the actions will be carried out in practice. “We believe that the project will continue to bear good fruit through dialogue, the exchange of experiences and knowledge, the academy, the kind of knowledge that we produce [Fiocruz], combined with practice, of the true universe that is indigenous culture and knowledge”.

In addition to direct actions to raise awareness and strengthen indigenous youth in Amazonian territories, the project foresees the development of tools by Fiocruz to contribute to UNICEF's work with communities. The project's administrative, logistical, and resource management will be carried out by Fiotec, which at the end of October defined the team responsible for fully monitoring the partnership among UNICEF, Coiab, and Fiocruz.

With information from a public live broadcast on YouTube from UNICEF Brazil on 10/27/2020.