Dire poverty on Brazil reservation breeds death
DOURADOS, Brazil -- An emergency relief operation has failed to stop the deaths of Indian children from poverty-related illnesses at a reservation in central Brazil, and long-term aid is needed, health officials and Indian leaders said.
At least eight children have died at Indian villages around Dourados, Mato Grosso do Sul state, this year -- often due to malnourishment -- despite emergency food distribution and medical attention. The most recent death was Sunday.
The deaths of stick-thin, malnourished Indian children on the Dourados reservation, where some 11,500 people live, has shocked many Brazilians, after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva promised to wipe out hunger in Brazil by 2006 in his ''Zero Hunger" campaign.
Emergency relief efforts began in mid-February after media reports on the state of the reservation.
Health authorities fear more deaths in Dourados unless authorities act quickly to help Indians plant crops, find fuel to cook food handouts, and combat chronic overcrowding that breeds alcoholism, depression, and suicide.
The Indian health agency Funasa says it is making progress in containing the problem but fears other illnesses after a poor 2004 harvest and drought conditions.
''The emergency action is not enough," said Gaspar Hickmann, regional head of Funasa, as he coordinated the relief operation from a suburban house in this affluent farm town. ''It will all go to nothing without more coordinated support."
Officials have so far given handouts like rice, flour, and cooking oil. They then found many Indians did not have the fuel to cook the food. The reservation is surrounded by some of the world's most productive grain and cattle country.
The latest death Sunday was due to a combination of pneumonia, gastro-enteritis and stomach infections. Other children have died of kidney problems, diarrhea, and dehydration -- mostly related to malnutrition.
The population of the Dourados reservation has exploded in the last decade, leading to a shortage of land among its Guarani, Kaiowa, and Terena Indians.
It is part of overall growth in Brazil's Indian population to over 700,000 that has put pressure on reservations and led to violent land grabs.
The federal government has promised to end often chaotic coordination between Indian agencies, ministries, and local authorities.
Dourados Indian leaders accuse the National Indian Foundation, or Funai, which is responsible for managing Brazil's reservations, of negligence and mismanagement.
