WHAT IS THE GOOD PROJECT?
A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization founded by David Good in 2013. We are a highly specialized international team with decades of experience working with indigenous peoples in the Amazon.
Through our collaboration with indigenous communities, we build projects that promote self-determination, advance scientific research, preserve ancient knowledge, and protect ancestral lands.
We document, learn, and participate in programs to foster cross-cultural awareness and teach the world the importance of preserving indigenous cultures and methods of sustainability.
WHO ARE THE YANOMAMI?
They are an indigenous people that subsist mostly by hunting-gathering and simple horticulture. Their territory spans across the southeastern Venezuelan and northwestern Brazilian border within the Amazon rainforest. Historically, they have been known for maintaining their traditional way of life, but more recently, their microbiome linked to their health status is earning them increasing popularity. Many experts contend that there are villages yet to be contacted.
Since sustained Western contact first began in the 1950s, the Yanomami have been confronting the spread of novel infectious diseases, invasion of illegal of gold miners, and engagement with complex political and economic policies that affect their ancestral way of life.
The Yanomami benefactors of our projects live in a region known as the Upper Orinoco of Venezuela. These communities are at the interface of practicing traditional customs while engaging with outside agencies to cope and learn how to navigate their changing society. The Yanomami critically need support to protect their way of life and maintain the health and welfare of the more vulnerable, less frequently contacted communities of the interior.
OUR IMPACT
The outcome of our projects contribute to the following
YANOMAMI HEALTH
Communities on the front lines of disease outbreaks are critical in saving lives as well as protecting the more vulnerable and isolated communities. Limited resources and lack of reliable communication puts many communities at risk of devastating epidemics including Covid-19.
Our projects will enhance monitoring of Yanomami health situations leading to improved disease surveillance and medical response times, as well as imit the spread of infectious through culturally sensitive public health training and workshops. Furthermore, our support will facilitate reliable emergency transportation of patients and medical personnel to outpatient clinics.
MICROBIOME RESEARCH
Studying the microbiome of Yanomami communities that have not been adversely affected by exposure to antibiotics, processed foods, industrial toxins, and pollutants is critical for global human health and the protection of the biodiversity in the Amazon.
Our work will increase our understanding of Yanomami health and food systems as it relates to their gut and skin microbes, as well as set important precedence in ethical research by including the Yanomami people as research partners and active participants. Through the Good Project and its partners, any benefit derived from the research will be shared with the Yanomami communities involved in the research.
INTERCULTURAL & BILINGUAL EDUCATION
The Yanomami face unique threats and challenges to their traditional knowledge and wisdom, environment, and way of life. Since the 1970s, these programs integrate their culture and belief systems while providing them valuable tools to achieve self-representation and self-determination
In collaboration with local leaders, our work will advance the Yanomami people's right to have access to intercultural education by enhancing infrastructure and telecommunication, developing projects that raise awareness on conservation and the dangers of environmental degradation.
INNOVATION & SUSTAINABILITY
Advanced, innovative, zero-emissions technologies help us accomplish our objectives that require complex energy needs. We continue to build programs and infrastructure that minimize that output of harmful pollutants and toxins.
Our work will help decrease the region’s dependency on gasoline and other fossil fuels as well as facilitate critical research and medical programs by sharing resources with the Yanomami people and other support groups. We will help build intercultural and international trust with the Yanomami communities as we all work towards achieving the same goals.
EXPEDITION LEADERS
David Good
Lead Coordinator
Hortensia Caballero-Arias
Coordinator
Lewis Cardozo
Assistant Coordinator
Yanomami Intercultural & Bilingual Schools
Local Institution
Biologist and founder of the Good Project. His research focuses on characterizing the human microbiome of Yanomami communities. He is a member of the Irokai-teri community where his Yanomami mother and family reside.
Anthropologist and President of the Good Project. Her work focused on cultural and political transformations, politics of identity, historical anthropology, and indigenous rights among Amazonian peoples. She has worked among the Yanomami for nearly 30 years.
Anthropologist and expedition assistant for the Good Project. He was trained in archeology at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. His field experience includes working and researching with indigenous Amazonian populations.
Since 1976, the Salesian Catholic Mission established these schools in response to Yanomami communities confronting novel challenges in health, economy, politics, and cultural preservation. They successfully built and maintained an infrastructure that supported over 1,000 Yanomami students
