Native Populations and COVID-19

Our Native populations are particularly at risk during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the Navajo Nation has been hit especially hard so far. On the Navajo Nation the per capita infection rate is 10 times that of the neighboring portions of Arizona. They face difficulties such as lack of access to running water, needing to travel far for food and necessities, few hospitals and health care clinics, large families living together which makes social distancing difficult, and higher baseline rates of chronic disease. I’ve been wondering what I can do to help, and a little research revealed several opportunities to donate:

Community Outreach and Patient Empowerment Program (COPE) is a non-profit associated with Brigham and Women’s hospital that has done COVID-19 outreach such as turning local hotels into respiratory care centers and delivering vital supplies to hotspot areas.

The Center for American Indian Health (CAIH) is a non-profit associated with John’s Hopkins that has been building hand-washing stations, delivering care packages to those most at risk within the Navajo Nation, getting PPE to local health care workers, and developing educational materials.

The Navajo Nation has established its own COVID-19 relief fund and is asking for monetary donations as well as non-monetary donations such as masks, hand sanitizer, food, water, toiletries, ect.
http://www.nndoh.org/donate.html

The ATADA (Antique Tribal Art Dealers Association) has set up at COVOD-19 relief fund. This one is for Pueblo communities as well as Navajo.

Former New Mexico governor Bill Richardson has developed an emergency fund to bring emergency medical supplies to the Navajo Nation in New Mexico.
https://nmchildren.org/?mc_cid=792eaa5633&mc_eid=42c873c147

The Northern Dine COVID-19 Relief GoFundMe which is providing care packages to families in need:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/northern-dine-covid19-relief-effort?mc_cid=792eaa5633&mc_eid=42c873c147

I’m posting in case anyone else is interested in donating to help out our artist friends and their communities in these difficult times. Thanks for reading, and stay safe everyone.

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Also this one
https://www.gofundme.com/f/far-east-navajo-covid19-relief?viewupdates=1&rcid=r01-158741976166-4d0cde61d7984673&utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B1137-update-supporters-v5b

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