Rainforest Foundation US and Lima’s Catholic University Law School
Help The Critically Endangered Kandochi People Receive Medical Care And Legal Support
The Kandochi people of the Peruvian Amazon are battling an epidemic of the Hepatitis B virus. There are only about 2,700 members of the group left and at least 70% of them have already contracted the deadly disease.To help the Kandochi get the emergency medical and legal attention they need, Rainforest Foundation US has teamed up with the Law School of Lima’s Catholic University.
The Kandochi people of Peru's northern Amazon are facing extinction from a rising Hepatitis B epidemic. Spread out among 52 communities, their total population is about 2,700—it’s this small number that comprises the entire ethnic group worldwide. With the staggering rise of the deadly virus, the Kandochi are in danger of disappearing forever. (Note: Kandochi is also spelled Candoshi and Kandozi)
In an effort to provide crucial health services and legal support to the Kandochi people, the Rainforest Foundation US (RF-US) partnered with the esteemed Law School of Lima’s Catholic University.Together,the two organizations created a legal clinic that works on behalf of Peruvian indigenous groups. Transcending textbooks and theory, law students offer practical, hands-on legal services to desperately in-need indigenous clients. The longer-term goal of the clinic is to give Peru’s future lawyers intimate exposure to the challenges of these communities, hopefully gaining the students’ interest, attention and empathy.
Within weeks its founding, the clinic was already at work on its inaugural case: The urgent health crisis amongst the Kandochi people.
Hepatitis B is a serious viral illness that attacks the liver. Untreated, as it has been in the Peruvian Amazon, the virus leads to cirrhosis, liver cancer, and other complications that eventually lead to liver failure and imminent death. Precisely how the virus was introduced to the community is not fully understood, and subject to great debate. What we do know is that, in recent years, the disease has spread exponentially and the statistics are staggering.
According to studies by the Peruvian government, approximately 70% of the entire community was infected in 2000. Since issuing this information, however, the government has failed to dedicate sufficient resources; and as a result, the disease has spread even more. There’s little doubt the percentage of infected people has risen in the nine years since. If the situation remains unchecked, the Kandochi people, simply put, could no longer exist.
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