On May 28, 2020 Ruth Alipaz from San Jose de Uchupiamonas participated in a webinar in Spanish on perspectives from women on the pandemic’s effect on indigeneous communities in Bolivia. The webinar was taped and available to view here.
During the webinar, Ruth and her colleagues mentioned the concern that school instruction will transition to online (virtual), and their kids will then lose a year. Ruth said the cell signal is so poor in San Jose de uchupiamonas that they only have a weak signal early in the morning. they asked why the government can't consider allowing the instructors who did not return to their homes outside the community to teach. They also mentioned that now food isn't as big a concern in the remote areas, but, it will become a major concern if this continues. Plus they expressed concern about the lack of health insurance, and lack of health care providers in their communities. Ruth also talked about tapping into the knowledge of elders for how to treat disease and illness and maintain health.Their communities are so remote that accessing funds at banks is a big issue. And, main sources of income (e.g., sales of nuts, tourism) is not possible now. Also mentioned in the webinar was the dredging for gold that is expanding as well as the pressure for genetically modified crops to be used in the area