AMOR International

In every health pandemic, those worst affected are indigenous peoples. Given that indigenous communities struggle to obtain medicine, it is vital that they be shielded and have access to basic health care. This crisis provides an invaluable opportunity to re-establish or strengthen traditional health systems and knowledge in indigenous communities to ensure affordable health care provision irrespective of governmental provision. This project will build the capacity of indigenous women to serve as Community Health Volunteers during Covid-19 and beyond, building communities that are prepared and resilient in the face of disaster, disease and food insecurity. With AMOR, we are unlocking the potential of indigenous communities to support their own health sustainably. Our vision is to expand to serve the millions of indigenous communities globally without healthcare provision, assist them in achieving health autonomy and so save the lives of the 9.7 million children who die of preventable diseases annually.

Curable diseases are wiping out indigenous people faster than any physical weapons. Depriving people of access to health services is one of the greatest human rights abuses that indigenous people face today. The coronavirus lockdown has brought the world’s informal economy to a grinding halt, threatening to plunge over one-sixth of the world’s population into abject poverty. The white flags of Guatemala, for example, indicate the pandemic's deadly side-effect: hunger. That this could significantly worsen malnutrition and lead to starvation in children and vulnerable populations is clear and a profound concern. Moreover, this same malnutrition is a risk factor that leaves these children and women far more exposed to the virus and disease in general. What is also clear is that any medicine or vaccines are unlikely to reach indigenous communities, so it is vital that they be shielded from the virus and have access to basic health care and food supplies during the current crisis and beyond. This crisis provides a once-in-a lifetime opportunity to re-introduce traditional health systems and knowledge that will help indigenous communities have sustainable access to free health support irrespective of governmental provision.

AMOR builds the capacity of indigenous women as Community Health Volunteers (ICHVs) to care for their communities during the Covid-19 crisis and beyond, helping build communities that are prepared and resilient in the face of disaster, disease and food insecurity.

The AMOR model has four major components: 

1)    Training young indigenous women in basic community health, traditional medicine and Covid-19 protocol to build the capacity of indigenous communities to mitigate their risk and prepare and protect themselves from disaster and disease.

2)    ICHVs hold regular clinics and conduct home visits in communities, educating on Covid-19 preparedness in addition to the prevention of common diseases afflicting indigenous communities.

3)    ICHVs also train others in these same skills, rebuilding traditional knowledge and wisdom in Mayan communities devastated by genocide and creating a strong base of indigenous women’s health leadership.

4)    ICHVs coordinate crisis food parcel distribution to the most vulnerable families.

The trainings content has two parts. The first part comprises an introduction to traditional medicine and how to use it to strengthen the immune system and protect the respiratory system and kidneys, building resistance to Covid-19 and other preventable diseases. The second part is specifically concerned with coronavirus prevention and treatment.

The target population whose lives this project has been designed to directly and meaningfully improve are the indigenous peoples of the world. We have begun this work in partnership with Mayan communities throughout Central America. In Guatemala alone there are 15 million indigenous inhabitants. The President of AMOR is indigenous Mayan and AMOR is deeply embedded in the communities we serve. This solution has been developed in conjunction with indigenous communities throughout all of its stages to ensure buy-in. Such communities lack doctors and public health services. This solution will address the needs of communities with high infant mortality rates to take responsibility for their own health in the same way that they did for millennia, rebuilding traditional health systems and knowledge destroyed by colonisation, and strengthening indigenous women's health leadership.

It is time to raise up once more the pillars of indigenous community, the women who are the shade for their children from the sun, their umbrella from the rain.

This solution focuses on preventative and mitigation measures that strengthen access to affordable primary healthcare systems in indigenous communities and tackle the health inequality they face by creating autonomy via the implementation of an Indigenous Community Health Volunteer system. This model has potential global application,harnessing indigenous human resources, knowledge and natural technology to help solve an issue that results in millions of unnecessary deaths each year and causes untold suffering.

This project's innovation lies in its focus on the use of human resources to solve costly health challenges and so eliminate traditional barriers to health for indigenous communities whose lives are being devastated by preventable and curable disease. By harnessing indigenous human resources, ancestral knowledge and natural technology to help remove these barriers, indigenous people become their own saviours and are freed from the need for charity.

Our project is fuelled by the power of indigenous people, traditional ancestral health knowledge and natural technology to solve health challenges that would usually incur huge costs to solve.

This indigenous and natural technology has been used by indigenous people for millennia to met their health care needs, with success. For instance, when the Europeans arrived on American shores, there were an estimated 90 to 112 million Native Americans alive and well and inhabiting the continent, a number that was reduced to 10 million during the first century, much of that through deliberate infection with mortal disease. Indigenous people have suffered centuries of oppression and genocide, but they are still here, fighting for their lives and dignity. Indigenous people deserve the opportunity to recover their health knowledge, to survive and thrive once more. This ancestral knowledge also has the potential to help solve health challenges beyond indigenous communities. During our pilot phase, we have seen a 55 per cent reduction in avoidable deaths, a statistic that provides great promise for indigenous futures.

Project purpose:

To build the capacity of indigenous women who are Community Health Volunteers (ICHVS) to inform, protect and serve their communities during the Covid-19 crisis and beyond, helping to build communities that are prepared and resilient in the face of disaster, disease and food insecurity.

Output 1. By December 2021, 2,250 Indigenous Community Health Volunteers (ICHVS) from 450 communities throughout Central America are trained to better inform, protect and serve their communities to meet their basic health needs during Covid-19 and beyond.

Activities linked to Output 1:

1.1 Provide training to 2,250 indigenous women in community health, Covid-19 protocols and traditional medicine that will help build the capacity of indigenous communities to mitigate their risk and prepare and protect themselves from disaster and disease.

1.2 Community Health Volunteers hold weekly clinics and conduct home visits in their communities, educating their communities regarding Covid-19 preparedness in addition to prevention of common diseases affecting indigenous communities.

Short-term outcomes: Indigenous communities are more resilient in the face of pandemics and better able to deal with the health challenges they face. Women's leadership is strengthened.

Long-term outcomes: Indigenous communities globally have health autonomy, the risk of death by preventable or curable disease minimised, and vital ancestral knowledge is unlocked with the potential for positive outcomes for global health as a whole.

Our solution currently serves almost 50,000 people directly.

In five years, it will serve a million people.

In ten years, it will serve 10 million people.

We plan to expand this successful project's impact by replicating it in neighbouring communities that ripples out to cover the entire Americas and then to expand its reach and impact by developing partnerships throughout Africa, Asia and Australasia.

The barriers that exist for us in the next year are: the current crisis and restrictions on movement and finances; marketing and fundraising capacity, technical business development experience.

Barriers in the next five years additional to those stated above could be difficulties in finding funding for Central America, and getting to know new communities at speed.

We are currently seeking expert advice in each of these areas to draw up a viable plan.

We are also scoping new communities and building contacts within them to enable us to move quickly when the time is right.

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4 full-time staff

8 part-time staff

AMOR is a relief organisation whose mission is to alleviate suffering among indigenous children and help rebuild indigenous communities devastated by genocide, war and poverty. AMOR was founded by Arnulfo Gómez Oxlaj in Guatemala in 2001 and registered in the UK in 2012, with Sandra Hannen M.Ed., an experienced Non-Profit Manager and qualified Naturopathic doctor, coming on board as Executive Director.

AMOR President Arnulfo Oxlaj was born during the holocaust perpetrated against the Mayan people in Guatemala. When Arnulfo was eight, soldiers rounded up the children of indigenous leaders and threw them one by one into a deep well to perish. Of 116 children, Arnulfo was the only survivor. In that moment, the dream was born in him to help indigenous people rise up out of the ashes of genocide and contribute their gifts to the world. Hailing from an important Mayan medicine and wisdom lineage, he began to take food, traditional medicine and words of wisdom to people in need, the first action of AMOR.

AMOR has been building the capacity of young Mayan women to protect the health of their communities destroyed by genocide and help build a healthy and peaceful future for the last four years. In 2014, the British Ambassador to Guatemala, Sarah Dickson, categorised AMOR as “the NGO with the potential to make the greatest impact on the lives of native women in Guatemala”.

AMOR currently has two existing partnerships:

The British Embassy in Guatemala and Honduras is supporting part of this project.

Universidad Oxlajuj is partnering with AMOR on providing traditional medicine resources and training to women.

Our path to financial sustainability resides in sustained donations and grants. We have grown by word of mouth over the past 3-4 years with no marketing budget, demonstrating the market need for this solution. Our customer acquisition cost is therefore zero. Our CHVs are volunteers. We are also interested in digitalising traditional health knowledge and sharing it globally to create an earned income stream.

We are excited to apply to receive and give support to peer organisations and be a part of a larger movement. This will enable us to build partnerships that will improve our impact and help us reach new communities in ever more meaningful ways. This will also help us find our fundraising feet, providing technical expertise which will help our solution reach its full potential, to the benefit of indigenous lives worldwide.

We are interested in strengthening our fundraising and marketing capacity in order to meet the challenges that lie ahead and maximise our impact.

We are interested in partnering with organisations who can help us strengthening our fundraising and marketing capacity in order to meet the challenges that lie ahead and maximise our impact.

We are also interested in partnering with organisations already working in other indigenous communities to help us expand the reach of AMOR.

This project is a proven model that builds the capacity of indigenous women to serve as Community Health Volunteers during Covid-19 and beyond, building communities that are prepared and resilient in the face of disaster, disease and food insecurity. With AMOR, we are unlocking the potential of indigenous communities to support their own health sustainably. Our vision is to expand to serve the millions of indigenous communities globally without healthcare provision, assist them in achieving health autonomy and so save the lives of the 9.7 million children who die of preventable diseases annually. This funding will help us reach our goals of the next crucial year, and help mitigate the devastating effects of the pandemic on indigenous communities in which we are already working.

This project is a proven model that builds the capacity of indigenous women to serve as Community Health Volunteers during Covid-19 and beyond, building communities that are prepared and resilient in the face of disaster, disease and food insecurity and strengthening indigenous women's health ;leadership. With AMOR, we are unlocking the potential of indigenous communities to support their own health sustainably. Our vision is to expand to serve the millions of indigenous communities globally without healthcare provision, assist them in achieving health autonomy and so save the lives of the 9.7 million children who die of preventable diseases annually. This funding will help us reach our goals of the next crucial year, and help mitigate the devastating effects of the pandemic on indigenous communities in which we are already working. For AMOR, women are the shelter from the sun for their children, their umbrella from the rain. It is vital that indigenous women are empowered to help care for their communities under threat.

This project is a proven model that builds the capacity of indigenous women to serve as Community Health Volunteers during Covid-19 and beyond, building communities that are prepared and resilient in the face of disaster, disease and food insecurity and strengthening indigenous women's health ;leadership. With AMOR, we are unlocking the potential of indigenous communities to support their own health sustainably. Our vision is to expand to serve the millions of indigenous communities globally without healthcare provision, assist them in achieving health autonomy and so save the lives of the 9.7 million children who die of preventable diseases annually. This funding will help us reach our goals of the next crucial year, and help mitigate the devastating effects of the pandemic on indigenous communities in which we are already working. For AMOR, women are the shelter from the sun for their children, their umbrella from the rain. It is vital that indigenous women are empowered to help care for their communities under threat.

This project is a proven model that builds the capacity of indigenous women to serve as Community Health Volunteers during Covid-19 and beyond, building communities that are prepared and resilient in the face of disaster, disease and food insecurity and strengthening indigenous women's health ;leadership. With AMOR, we are unlocking the potential of indigenous communities to support their own health sustainably. Our vision is to expand to serve the millions of indigenous communities globally without healthcare provision, assist them in achieving health autonomy and so save the lives of the 9.7 million children who die of preventable diseases annually. This funding will help us reach our goals of the next crucial year, and help mitigate the devastating effects of the pandemic on indigenous communities in which we are already working. For AMOR, women are the shelter from the sun for their children, their umbrella from the rain. It is vital that indigenous women are empowered to help care for their communities under threat.