Hunger and thirst: the short lives of indigenous children in a Colombian desert

The doctors saved little Rosalinda. After almost 24 hours of traveling through the desert of La Guajira, this two-year-old indigenous woman arrived at an emergency room dying of malnutrition, a disease that kills almost a hundred children every year in this region of Colombia.

He had been vomiting and had diarrhea for days. They hydrated her through her tiny wrist. “It arrived very bad. It was like carrying a rag.” remembers his mother, Magalis Iguarán.

After five days in the Talapuin Maternal and Child Unit in Uribia, Rosalinda “She is already sitting down and asks for food. When she arrived she didn’t even want water (…) they saved her”, says Iguarán (32), wrapped in a yellow tunic that hides her own thinness.

“I only eat twice a day: breakfast arepa with cheese and sometimes for lunch rice with bits of beef (…) food for five people is expensive,” he complains. Three other children await his return to the remote community of Puerto Estrella.

Poverty (67.4%), the scarcity of drinking water and corruption wreak havoc in La Guajira, the northernmost point of South America, on the shores of the Caribbean, and inhabited by Wayúu indigenous people. There the mortality rate for children under 5 years of age was 21 per thousand births in 2021, according to the statistical authority.

In Syria, where a 12-year civil war has the country on the brink of famine, the number is 22, according to UNICEF.

More than 300 deaths

“Rosalinda arrives with acute weight loss due to diarrhea, delay in height (…) moderate acute malnutrition”explains pediatrician Karen Toncel.

Every day he deals with up to two similar cases. While Rosalinda is recovering, another two-year-old girl with signs of malnutrition rests urgently with a probe connected to her hand.

Toncel finds at least one case every week “critical” which refers to intensive care.

“Fatal I can say that there are one or two patients every month, we double the mortality in the country. (…) almost 100% are Wayúu population”the Mint.

At least 20 children died of malnutrition in La Guajira during the first four months of the government of leftist Gustavo Petro, who in just under half a year in office has admitted that this is his first “failure”.

In Colombia, 308 children died of hunger in 2022 (85 in La Guajira), 111 more than the previous year, according to the Ombudsman’s Office.

Water from the “jagüey”

Under a bower of dry cactus, the children of the Malirachon indigenous community take refuge from the sun. A nutritionist measures her arms using a tape with red numbers that warn of possible malnutrition.

Two of the 22 are “at risk.”

“I feel sad for the child, he is sick”says in broken Spanish Sandra Epieyú (22 years old), mother of José Fernando (1) and José (4), the thinnest.

She is a weaver and speaks the Wayuunaiki language. Her petite figure hides four months of pregnancy.

In his wooden hut, he burns firewood to cook chicha, a corn drink that makes up a large part of his diet.

Her husband takes the handicrafts to the departmental capital Riohacha and receives between 8 and 10 dollars a week.

“Sometimes I buy rice and red beans, meat is expensive,” grumbles Epieyú while the country reaches an inflation rate of 13.2%, a record of the century.

Some 15 families live here without drinking water and must walk to the neighboring water mill. Epieyú, who because of his pregnancy cannot carry drums, admits that sometimes he stocks up on the “jagüeys”, huge puddles of rainwater where animals also drink.

According to Evasio Gómez, the local indigenous authority, the state Colombian Institute for Family Welfare is aware of the Epieyú case and sends them a food supplement that has not arrived for more than two weeks.

The head of the entity resigned at the beginning of February. Her successor, Astrid Cáceres, was unable to attend an interview with AFP as she has not yet taken office.

“Seasons of politicians”

A huge empty tank is next to Sandra’s house.

“The Mayor’s Office brought it in 2016 (…) they brought water from Riohacha in a tank truck” but they stopped doing so after the 2019 elections.

“I want them to answer us as it should be, other than because of seasons of politicians,” Gomez gets upset.

The scarcity affects this entire region with tens of thousands of scattered villages. On unpaved roads, women with children carry jerry cans on bicycles, donkeys or on foot.

Those over five years of age receive food at their schools. But a teacher who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of losing her job assures that the rations are precarious. Former local governor José Ballesteros (2014-2015) is on trial for embezzling the program.

Wilmer Epieyú (7) does not count in the statistics on child malnutrition because he is over five years old, but he is only 75 centimeters tall and “He has the weight of a one and a half year old child” (8 kilos), Nielcen Benítez, nutritionist for the NGO Banco de Alimentos, is alarmed.

Benítez examines his seven siblings. Several show warning signs: swollen bellies and discolored hair.

“It’s so heartbreaking” sighs.

Source: AFP