Lacking Medical Necessities, the Indigenous Peoples of Ayutla Are Dying of Neglect Kau Sirenio Pioquinto - CIP Americas
go to original January 9, 2016

History Has Shown That Progress Has Not Been Kind to Indigenous People (CCTV)

Her small town has neither medicine nor doctors, so her parents took her to the nearest hospital - in Ayutla, Guerrero - after three weeks of a fever that would not break. In La Concordia, children routinely die of tuberculosis, like Alicia, and of measles, diarrhea and other illnesses that have long since ceased to claim lives in most societies.

The community health center closes at three o’clock on Fridays. The doctor and nurse leave the community on the weekends. Respiratory and gastrointestinal diseases are common in La Concordia.

On Nov. 22, Minerva took her daughter to the hospital in Ayutla. Without being able to speak Spanish, and with no translator available, she checked her daughter in to be treated. The medical staff told the distraught mother it would be impossible to save her little girl’s life. Alicia died just hours later.

That same day another worry began to creep in—Minerva now needed one thousand two hundred pesos to return to La Concordia and pay for the funeral.

La Concordia, an indigenous ñuu savi town, lacks virtually all basic necessities: medicine, potable water, transit, phone service, food. The inhabitants must make the trek down to Ayutla to buy their basic needs. They leave at five in the morning and come back at two in the afternoon. Those are the only times they can get a ride on the trucks that go down to the plaza.

“It has been two months since the Chikungunya contingency ended. We ran out of aspirin, but they still won’t provide us with more. We don’t have any medicine,” said nurse Luis Antonio, who attends to at least five other communities besides La Concordia.

He adds, “What we need most is medicine. People come in, but we don’t have any medicine to offer them or supplies to treat them with.”

Read the rest at CIP Americas

Related: OECD Urges Mexico to Overhaul Health System (Public Finance)

We invite you to add your charity or supporting organizations' news stories and coming events to PVAngels so we can share them with the world. Do it now!