Flooding and Funding

The trip became even more complicated 


when I learned from Nixiwaka that there was a terrible flood at his tribe with houses, generators and other equipment being destroyed, only the villages located higher up alongside the Gregorio river were ‘untouched’

It was the worst flood in living memory and the general suspicion was that climate change and illegal logging were key contributors. Nixiwaka wanted to raise money and asked me for support. I made it clear that raising funds personally had to be clear as to the purpose and it should be transparent as to what was to be purchased with the funds raised and he needed to check all the legal formalities. A day or two later I found that he had already set up a fund raising website. Personally I thought the best I could do was to raise his fee allowing him to support the cause, we could then try to purchase some of the required goods whilst in Brazil and had a better understanding of what was needed. I was happy to assist as much as I could once we got to the affected area, which would give the project a very dramatic dimension. By the time we traveled the floods had already subsided, luckily. However it remained unclear to me how any funds would be distributed or who was in charge of organizing help locally, handling the funds and how all of this would be recorded and documented, which doesn’t bode well for fundraising for the Yawanawá through personal fundraising platforms such as GoFundMe, and even those for charities. Some more details are in an online article which indicate that the Associação Sociocultural Yawanawá is coordinating some of the efforts. Some of the efforts appear to be coordinated by a young film-maker who is also interested in creating content for their television programme called  4REAL. 

Many of the claims made seem difficult to assess and I had no means to do so. Certainly some people were affected by the floods and I saw evidence of families who were homeless and certainly the small Gregorio river having become more hazardous. Many,certainly for a short period, were affected and almost each village/settlement visited reported that the flood reached them. However by the time I arrived, maybe three to four weeks later, the level of damage was no longer immediately visible in those different settlements. But the key it seems is not simply to document the claims made compared to my personal observations, which will be subjective and limited, but the clarity of how these funds are channeled to those who actually need the support and better feedback as to what was actually achieved with these funds. This issue of transparency and feedback is not unique to this instance but is a general problem with fundraising and charities work hard to reassure their supporters of the effective use of funds raised.

The flooding brought down large trees backing the river Gregorio in parts making travel even more difficult.