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 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 political and economic policies that affect their ancestral way of life.
The Yanomami benefactors of this project 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
Supporting Yanomami communities on the front lines of disease outbreaks is critical if we are to protect the more vulnerable and isolated communities of the interior.
Our Impact
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Enhance monitoring of Yanomami health situations health leading to improved disease surveillance and medical response times.
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Help limit the spread of infectious through culturally sensitive public health training and workshop in disease recognition and prevention
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Facilitate reliable emergency transportation of patients and medical personnel to outpatient clinics.
MICROBIOME RESEARCH
Human microbiome research is critical for understanding how our microbes affect human health and to disease. Industrialized societies are rapidly losing their microbial diversity contributing to epidemics of chronic inflammatory diseases. Studying the microbiome of Yanomami communities that have not been adversely affected by outside industrial influences (e.g., use of antibiotics, processed foods, industrial toxins and pollutants) is critical for global human health and the protection of the biodiversity in the Amazon.
Our Impact
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Increase our understanding of Yanomami health and food systems as it relates to their gut and skin microbes.
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Advance important research that provides a benefit to all of humanity.
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Set important precedence in ethical research by including the Yanomami people as research partners and active participants.
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Raise global awareness on the importance of protecting the rainforest and the Yanomami microbes.
INTERCULTURAL AND BILINGUAL EDUCATION
Yanomami Intercultural and Bilingual Schools integrate traditional culture and belief systems while providing the tools to achieve self-representation and self-determination on the world stage.
Our Impact
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Advance the Yanomami people's right to have access to intercultural education.
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Increase administrative efficacy by facilitating reliable access to educational information and networking with local and national institutions.
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Facilitate important unique dialogue and exchange between Yanomami communities of Venezuela and Brazil, and the rest of the world.
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Provide reliable and clean transportation for Yanomami students and teachers.
CONSERVATION WITH INNOVATION
We will implement the best, innovative, zero-emissions technology to carry out our expedition and projects with the Yanomami.
Our Impact
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Decrease dependency on gasoline and other fossil fuels.
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Decrease the output of harmful fumes and pollution.
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Facilitate future research and medical programs by sharing resources with the Yanomami people and other support groups.
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Create an atmosphere of collaboration, trust, and efficiency as we work together to protect the sustainability, health, and welfare of the Yanomami
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
