Sinergias prepares project in Guainía

The organization will have a project in the region to improve coverage for the prevention, control, and elimination of five neglected infectious diseases. It is expected to benefit 77 indigenous communities (totaling around 6,840 people).

The director of Sinergias, Dr. Pablo Montoya, visited the project's coverage area this week. There, he met with various local health institutions to jointly establish the best way to implement strategies that will contribute to the control of neglected diseases, classified by the World Health Organization as diseases that mainly affect poor populations in rural areas.

The project, which is a collaboration between the Ministry of Health, Direct Relief, the Departmental Health Secretariat, and the organization, will contribute to the control of trachoma (which causes permanent blindness), helminthiasis (intestinal parasites), pediculosis, scabies, tungiasis (external parasites known as chiggers), and larva migrans in areas not covered by the current program for the prevention and control of Neglected Infectious Diseases (NID).

In communities near the Guaviare River (on the border of Guainía and Vichada), the Atabapo and Inírida rivers, and the Bocón, Barranco Tigre, and Loma Altados streams, two rounds of mass drug administration (provided by the Ministry of Health) will be carried out, and health promotion activities will be developed using innovative methodologies and techniques with an intercultural approach. In this way, it is hoped that a better understanding of the traditional conception of these diseases will be achieved and, based on this knowledge, recommendations tailored to the local context will be offered.

Each project activity will be in line with Colombia's National Inter-programmatic Plan for the Prevention, Control, and Elimination of Neglected Infectious Diseases, 2013-2017.

In this way, Sinergias reaffirms its commitment to intercultural dialogue to achieve quality health care adapted to the traditional practices and beliefs of the ethnic communities of Guainía.