Building Resilience Among the Yanomami
In the face of their modern day challenges, the Yanomami people need our help in acquiring the skills and resources necessary for their survival. Your contribution will have a profound and lasting impact as it will directly fund these projects:
The Good Project is dedicated to the protection of the Amazon rainforest, advancing research in the human microbiome and global health, and the promotion of intercultural programs that build resilience, self-determination, and sustainable lifestyles for the Yanomami.
We need your support to carry out an important upcoming expedition that will bring critical resources to the Yanomami as they face unique challenges in preserving their culture and lands.
A major part of our mission is to support microbiome research with the Yanomami. Their traditional way of life, with their healthy diet and active lifestyles, may play an important role in shaping their highly diverse microbiome. With increasing rates of chronic inflammaroy diseases across the world, our work will have a a key impact on human health. Futhermore, this research will advamce our mission to preserve the Amazon and their inhabitants.
With each expedition, we document and learn more about the Yanomami culture leading to stronger and more trusting relationships with their communitites. Our deep respect and admiration for their way of life inspires us to do whatever we can to preserve it. And that includes sharing our gained knowledge, wisdoms, and experiences with you.
Installing solar-powered satellite communication at the Yanomami schools. This system will increase disease surveillance and facilitate projects in intercultural education and sharing of information.
Carry out microbiome research that will help us understand the unique relationship between the microbes and human health and development. Set ethical precedence by including indigenous peoples as research partners and benefactors of scientific research.
Deliver the region's first fully electric outboard motors that can be charged by solar panels. This will increase the efficacy of the Yanomami schools, facilliate transport of patients to clinics, and decrease the region's dependency on fossil fuels.
Document and digitally preserve age old Yanomami traditions amd mythologies. We will work with the Yanomami leaders to help ensure that their wisdoms of the rainforest are never forgotten.
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 that remain completely isolated .
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 navigating their rapidly evolving integration with the national 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
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 limit 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 the 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
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.
Hortensia Caballero-Arias
Coordinator
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.
Lewis Cardozo
Assistant Coordinator
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.
Yanomami Intercultural & Bilingual Schools
These schools were established in response to Yanomami communities confronting novel challenges in health, economy, politics, and cultural preservation. Founded by the Salesian Mission, they successfully built and maintained an infrastructure that supports over 1,000 Yanomami students.
