Fires in the Amazon: One Way to Help

[Thea Riofrancos]

Hi All,

I am sure we are all following the news on the Amazon fires closely (and see this excellent analysis today in the Boston Review). Many of us wonder how we can act in solidarity with those directly affected. I would like to pass on a message from a friend and colleague Julie Klinger, whose work on rare earth minerals you may know. Message copied below. 

Yours, 

Thea

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A lot of people are wondering what they can do re: Amazon fires. 

At the request of Yanomami spokesperson Davi Kopenawa, who was here in May, we have created an English-language website for his organization, Hutukara. 

The site can be accessed here: https://arcg.is/0vHGrj0

Because the Brazilian Government has obstructed two key channels of funding to ISA, their capacity to provide continued support to Hutukara has been undermined. Several key staff, some of whom have worked with indigenous communities for years, have recently lost their jobs. 

Donations to Hutukara go directly to provide for security and legal fees to help Davi and his partners, including ISA, to combat the ongoing violence against Indigenous peoples and the Rainforest. Research shows that empowering indigenous people, more than any other strategy attempted over the past 50 years, is the most effective way to protect the Amazon.

 

In organizing this website, we have partnered with Rainforest Foundation, US, to process donations and to ensure that they are tax deductible.

I hope you will consider forwarding this to your networks because it is a concrete answer to the question so many are rightly asking right now: "What can we do to help?"

Every donation, however modest, helps. The matter is urgent.

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Thea Riofrancos
Assistant Professor

Department of Political Science

Providence College

http://www.theariofrancos.com/