Primary Health Care experience with indigenous communities in the department of Vaupés

On April 27, the III Virtual VI International Meeting on Collective Health, organized by the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, was held. The event was attended by students and professors from the health sector, members of the Ministry of Health, the Secretariat of Health of Bogota, among others. Pablo Montoya, our director, had a space for a presentation in which he shared the trajectory we have had on health with indigenous communities of Vaupés.

In his presentation called Experience of Primary Health Care with indigenous communities in the department of Vaupés, he told the trajectory of our organization, which began in 2011 and has been characterized by the prioritization of intercultural health and public health advocacy and primary health care, among other interests.

The presentation discussed the main characteristics of the Amazon region and the importance of identifying the multiple scenarios that compose it.

“We have many Amazonia in the country, we do not dimension that this corresponds to 42% of the national territory and that there are differences in economic and social processes; there is a great ethnic and cultural diversity with 64 indigenous peoples and more than 50 languages spoken in this territory and there are multiple knowledge systems.”

Its intervention was based mainly on the work that Sinergias has carried out in the department of Vaupés, a territory of 57 km2 with less than 50,000 inhabitants and 81% indigenous population. Vaupés currently has 54 health care points, three of which are permanent and many of the others intermittent.

The work of Sinergias has been developed mainly in 18 communities near the municipality of Mitú, communities with around 2,000 inhabitants. The work and methodologies that we have used in the department began in 2012 with an invitation from the Departmental Health Secretariat Pan American Health Organization in partnership with the Ministry of Health to accompany some public health issues in an area near the urban center. A process that began with consultation with the indigenous communities and led to the construction of five health centers.

Sinergias proposes a model that it has developed and built together with the communities in Vaupés that is characterized by 14 components, four of which are transversal to all processes. The key pillars are: strengthening local capacities, community family health, health surveillance, intercultural approach, women's health, children's health, mental health, chronic neglected diseases and basic assistance. The cross-cutting components correspond to: food sovereignty, health communication, health information systems and accompaniment, technical assistance and supervision (learn more about this here: https://museoecologiahumana.org/espacio/exposiciones-temporales/ano-2023/co-construyendo-salud-con-pueblos-indigenas-amazonicos/).

The director of the organization also pointed out that part of the effect that the processes have had on the community is the interdisciplinary nature of the work team, made up of nursing assistants, health promoters and indigenous technicians, as well as indigenous leaders, anthropologists, doctors, sociologists, nurses and public health specialists, among others. Some results of the intercultural processes were shown, such as the work carried out in the family and home health component, the strengthening of territorial governance in health and the support in the construction of the Intercultural Indigenous Health System (SISPI).

The presentation closed with some conclusions of the proposed model.

"As a conclusion, we believe that this model guarantees full participation and agreement with respect to the different knowledge systems, capacity building linked to self-determination and governance. They are territorialized processes, designed from the territory and for the territory", providing elements to make the necessary links for intersectoral responses, he said.

It was also concluded from the model that it has practical technologies and comprehensive and socioculturally appropriate healthcare, among other characteristics.

See the full paper through this link: https://youtu.be/NL3RrOTfJ7I?t=6800