By Fernanda Lopes, Allyne Andrade e Silva, Cristina Orpheo and Angelica Basthi
In 2022, an investment of R$2.5 million is being allocated to quilombola communities and indigenous peoples in several Brazilian states through the Baobá Racial Equity Fund; the Brazilian Human Rights Fund and the Casa Socioambiental Fund, brought together in an unprecedented initiative in Brazil: the Alliance between Funds.
The Alliance between Funds is a collaborative philanthropy initiative to support invisible and more vulnerable populations in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although invisible and marginalized with regard to the protection and guarantee and enforcement of rights, indigenous peoples and quilombola communities have produced local solutions, protected and rebuilt with resilience and strength the territories where they face the problems worsened by the pandemic. Indigenous peoples, for example, created the observatory Indigenous Emergency which brings together a front of the indigenous movement to combat the COVID-19 pandemic. The quilombola communities launched the COVID-19 Observatory in Quilombos, an initiative of the National Coordination for the Articulation of Black Rural Quilombola Communities (CONAQ). The two actions monitor records of COVID-19 cases, deaths and the impacts of the pandemic on the territories of communities and original peoples.
Official data or data recorded by the groups themselves confirm the worsening vulnerability of quilombolas and indigenous people during the pandemic. According to the Covid-19 Observatory in Quilombos, for example, among the 1,492 quilombos in the country monitored, there were a total of 5,660 cases of Covid-19, with 301 lives lost to the disease until November 2021. CONAQ has been denouncing the lack of interest to public authorities and the mass media given the impacts worsened by the profound health, social, economic and environmental crisis caused by the pandemic in these communities. Faced with this scenario, CONAQ presented in 2021 an Allegation of Non-compliance with Fundamental Precepts (ADPF-742) to the Federal Supreme Court (STF) requesting emergency measures to guarantee the dignity and rights of these populations. The action was judged in favor by the STF ministers, who ordered the federal government to present a National Plan to Combat the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic in quilombola communities. To date, the government's implementation has been partial and continues to require a quilombola struggle front to have access to all deliberations determined by the STF.
Among indigenous peoples, the Indigenous Missionary Council (Cimi), based on data monitored by the Special Secretariat for Indigenous Health (SESAI), recorded that there were 63,225 confirmed cases of Covid-19 among indigenous people until March 2022, with 803 deaths. Also according to Cimi, the Articulation of Indigenous Peoples of Brazil (APIB) counted 1,289 lives of indigenous people lost to the disease in the period.
In the face of Covid-19, indigenous peoples have continued the fight against the systematic violation of the right to their lands. Recently, they carried out a broad mobilization in front of the STF, in Brasília, against the vote on the Marco Zero thesis – which would restrict the territorial rights of indigenous Brazilian peoples.
In line with the struggles of these populations, the notices launched in 2021 by the Baobá Fund for Racial Equity, the Brazilian Human Rights Fund and the Casa Socioambiental Fund, within the scope of the Alliance between Funds, prioritized the reconstruction of the social fabric based on three strategic axes : 1) strengthening the resilience capacity of organizations, collectives and groups; 2) food sovereignty and security; and 3) the promotion of social, environmental and racial justice in the construction of solutions to the problems caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Through three independent notices launched by each of the Alliance's member funds, projects prepared by associations, groups, indigenous and quilombola peoples and communities were selected. There are ongoing actions and groups located in 16 Brazilian states – Bahia, Ceará, Maranhão, Pernambuco, Paraíba, Mato Grosso do Sul, Amazonas, Roraima, Rio Grande do Norte, Piauí, Pará, Acre, Rio de Janeiro, São Paulo, Minas Gerais and Santa Catarina.
In this emblematic effort, however, these populations cannot remain alone. It is necessary to maintain active and permanent listening to these groups in order to offer support to the efforts that are already being carried out by quilombolas and indigenous people. This was the move made by the Alliance between Funds, which seeks, in addition to financial support, to provide indirect investments and create opportunities for exchange and learning between supported organizations. The Alliance between Funds also seeks to foster other spaces and mechanisms for institutional strengthening, deepening efforts built throughout the trajectory of the three funds that make it up.
There is still a long way to go to overcome the impacts of the pandemic and the setbacks that have been imposed on Brazilian society. The decision to bring together these funds for a collaborative purpose – materialized in the Alliance between Funds – is a supportive alternative with the aim of expanding and enhancing support for these communities and indigenous peoples. The response to the profound impacts of these dark times on life and modes of social organization, however, will depend on our ability to accept demands, act promptly and collectively and offer the most varied forms of mutual, collaborative and regenerative help.
Angelica Basthi – Consultant for Alliance between Funds. Journalist, has a postgraduate degree in Human Rights Management from UCAM (Cândido Mendes University) and a master's degree in communication and culture from UFRJ. Author of the book Pelé – black star in green fields.
Cristina Orpheo – Executive Director of Casa Socioambiental Fund. Administrator, has a postgraduate degree in social project management, third sector and environmental management. He has 20 years of experience in project development and management, strategic planning and resource mobilization. For the last 10 years, he has worked in Grantmaking and supporting grassroots community groups.
Fernanda Lopes – Program Director of Baobá Fund for Racial Equity. Biologist, doctor in public health, anti-racist activist. She was an employee of the UN Population Fund and a researcher in the areas of human rights and health, racism and health, and racial inequities and health.
Cover image: Quilombo dos Rufinos/Thiago Rodrigues
