As a member of Indigenous Kinship Collective New York City - who supported this action- and as the president of the nonprofit organization Images for Inclusion Inc, we were able to extend our Mapuche Covid-19 relief to Afro Descendants and their families living in Wallmapu, the Indigenous Mapuche territory, in Chile. This initiative consisted in providing free hand sanitizer and reusable masks made with 3 layers of protection by our Mapuche kin. It is a significant effort as Afrodescendants, along with the Indigenous peoples, are the most vulnerable population and therefore the ones at a higher risk of getting contaminated. That due to the amount of economic disadvantages they suffer, racist discrimination, poor access to healthcare, decent work and housing among other factors, mainly as a consequence of the State remaining aloof from basic human rights treaties such as ILO Convention. Temuco concentrates 40% of the Covid-19 cases in the Araucania Region, which is the poorest region in Chile, with 4,314 confirmed cases. Up until now Chile has a total of 366,671 confirmed cases and 9,889 deaths. — Lidia Arriagada-Garcia / August 7, 2020. -
