Indigenous peoples' health and well being

Health Unlimited works to promote the right to health of the poorest and most marginalised communities affected by conflict, instability or discrimination.  Our experience has shown that these are frequently indigenous peoples. 

There are 350 million indigenous peoples in the world, representing over 5,000 languages and cultures in more than 70 countries on every continent. Yet indigenous peoples are still dying prematurely, are unable to access the health services to which they are entitled and are routinely discriminated against and dismissed by health staff, who lack training and understanding of their needs.

Wider economic, social and political issues are destroying the lands and livelihoods of indigenous peoples and underlying the problems of poor health.  These include environmental degradation caused by logging, mining, dam construction and increasing commercial invasion of indigenous lands.  

Our work with indigenous peoples concerns improving their access to effective and culturally appropriate health care, whilst supporting them to articulate their own health concerns, priorities and the nature of services they want. 

We have developed a rights framework for our work with indigenous people. In particular we take our lead from two articles of human rights legislation agreed at the United Nations:

Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ‘Everyone has the right to adequate health and well being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing medical care and necessary social services’

Article 27 of the International Covenant on the Civil and Political Rights ‘In those states in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist, persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language’.

Audio-visual material

Visit our multimedia section to hear the views of indigenous people from around the world and view slideshows about our projects with indigenous people.



Articles and reports written by staff and patrons:

John Simpson: 'Diamonds are curse of ancient Bushmen'

Indigenous People's Health -why are they behind everyone, everywhere? an article published in the Lancet.

Angela Brown on Indigenous Peoples, Health and Traditional Medicine

Christine Briasco writes for her alumni magazine on health in Cambodia
 

This update report on our Action Research to Advocacy Project (ARAI) contains details of our ongoing advocacy work with indigenous communities in Ratanakiri, Cambodia.  The aim of the project is to identify and tackle the barriers indigenous women face in accessing public maternal health services.  A series of advocacy workshops have been conducted bringing together indigenous villagers, health centre staff and government officials.  Process information and key lessons learnt are highlighted in the update report. 

For more about our work in Cambodia...
 

A new series on indigenous health by the Lancet

In May 2006, The London School of Health and Tropical Medicine and Health Unlimited collaborated in a series on indigenous health in the renowned medical journal The Lancet.  The series includes research papers and articles on indigenous health by academics, and personal accounts from indigenous peoples; many of which were contributed by communities where Health Unlimited is working.  The authors of one of the papers warn that the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as they stand today will allow whole populations of indigenous people to disappear.  The series presents evidence to show that in both developed and poor developing nations, indigenous people are much worse off than the general population.

The Lancet series has been written in the first year of the Second Decade of the World’s Indigenous Peoples, initiated after a First Decade which – even according to the High Commissioner for Human Rights, achieved little. The High Commissioner noted in an evaluation of the Decade that its main objective, the adoption of a declaration of rights for Indigenous Peoples, had not been achieved and that more needed to be done by the Member States and the international community to improve the rights of Indigenous peoples. Listen here to the  interview of one of the authors.

The LSHTM team, which is contributing a number of research papers with Health Unlimited and coordinated the series, is echoing the calls made by the Permanent Forum for more research and action to get Indigenous peoples’ health included into the MDGs, and for the issue to be placed high on the agenda at the UN’s MDG forthcoming conference in September.

A full report on the Indigenous Peoples Right to Health Conference "Did the International Decade of Indigenous Peoples make a difference?", which was held on 9/10 December 2004 is available here

A Health Unlimited publication on Indigenous Peoples’ health

download a pdf here

Utz´ Wach´il: health and well being among Indigenous Peoples

To order a hard copy please email your postal address and specify the number of copies required.

‘What I think is that well being is living better, living well. Because …
“well being” means being well in the family, being well in the home, in good health, not ill, and another thing is eating, or having food in the home – there’s beans, corn, food; it means not suffering hunger, not suffering illness, not suffering in your thinking either, because if you’re bad in your mind, that means not living well.
That’s what well being is about.’

Gaspar Castro Uz, 68 years old, K´iche´ ethnic group, Santa Lucia la Reforma Municipality, Totonicapán Department, Guatemala

One year ago, I began to have symptoms of coughing, a lack of strength, and difficulty breathing. I got some herbs medicine from a local healer in the township, but they were not much help. Instead, my coughing became more and more severe, and I became thinner each day. It became more and more difficult to breathe when working, and now I can’t work in the field at all and depend on my wife and oldest son. I thought about going to Bangkang for treatment, but it’s too far, and I don’t have any money. The family is now in serious debt as a result and now they just take each day as it comes. …My greatest difficulty is that the field in the mountains is too small for my family. The annual grain production is only enough for four or six months of the year.  We have difficulty managing food during the rest of months, which is made harder because I can’t hunt or work because I am ill.  My wife has to work for other people so that we can get some money for grain.’

Ai’ong , 40+ year old man, Wa ethnic group, Nanpadi township, Bangkang special district, Wa state, Burma/Myanmar

       'I have three children all of whom are married and have their own families. The last time one of the children was sick we got some tablets from a community member that was trained by the Ministry of Health and Health Unlimited. If I get sick I first talk the members of my community and see if somebody has any traditional advice. I try that – if that doesn’t work we try to go to the nearest clinic.’

Njindo, 60 year old woman, San ethnic group, Uzera, Tsumkwe West, Namibia

‘A few years ago a Cambodian mining company began excavating gold on land belonging to our village. Neither the company nor the district authorities had asked permission from the village elders. The mines were closely guarded day and night. We were strictly forbidden from entering the land on which the mining was taking place. Prior to the arrival of the miners we had seen little sickness in our village. Shortly after the mining started, villagers began to suffer from a range of health problems, which included diarrhoea, fever, headaches and coughing and vomiting with blood. The sickness mainly affected children but a small number of adults also were affected. 25-30 people became ill, of which 13 eventually died. We feared that the village spirit had become angry, as outsiders were mining land, and this has been a taboo for a long time.’

Diang Phoeuk, Pao Village Elder, Taveng Krom commune, Ratanakiri Province, Cambodia

We need your support to keep raising awareness of Indigenous Peoples’ needs. If you have found this information useful please consider donating on-line to Health Unlimited. Thank you.

 

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