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Health and interculturality in Pastaza

RECIPIENT 

People and Plants International – Sacha Warmi Center

COUNTRY

Ecuador

Health and interculturality in Pastaza

RECIPIENT

People and Plants International – Sacha Warmi Center

COUNTRY

Ecuador

This project aligns with the following Sustainable Development Goals. To learn more about the United Nations SDGs, please click here

COMMUNITY PARTNERS DETAILS

This project promotes an intercultural dialogue between Kitchwa traditional medicine (the Association of Midwives of Arajuno) and western medicine (the Arajuno Health District), as well as encouraging an exchange of experiences, practices and traditional knowledge among midwives. These Amazonian Kitchwa communities have always had complex traditional health systems that have allowed them to care for themselves, but since the arrival and dominance of the western health care model these traditional practices have been weakened almost to the point of extinction. In the specific case of midwives, traditional practices have not only been devalued by the official health care system, but new laws and policies have placed heavy restrictions on the practice of midwifery and threatened to extinguish a wealth of traditional health and cultural practices. Strengthening the traditional health care system within these communities is an important step for self-determination and autonomy. It also opens the possibility for true interculturality in health care, one that respects the ancestral wisdom of Indigenous people and the health and balance of the global life system in the Amazon.

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