A Cabecar Indigenous reality

Posted by Ginnee Hancock
on the Costa Rica Living Group
Thu Jul 3, 2008 12:19 pm (PDT)

Yesterday a Cabecar Indigenous woman came down from the reservation with her mother and her child, a deformed two year old. The child has never seen a doctor and was born on the reservation. The birth was very difficult and one side of the child’s body is mangled. They walked for perhaps as long as 8-10 hours to seek help at the Mission. The child was carried and the Grandmother is not well herself. The Grandmother has either dementia, is in shock, is starving, or all of the above. Starvation contributes to the problems of the Cabecar Indigenous, mental illness and disease.

This Mother loves her child very much, she is not educated, speaks the Cabecar language, not Spanish, and is afraid of the Tico (Costa Rican) world because of years of discrimination and repression that she has endured as an Indigenous person.

A 5 year old child with a deformity was recently hung and murdered on the reservation. It’s a cultural thing. The Mother who arrived yesterday was fleeing with her Mother and child because she believes her child was next to be killed. I believe her.

The Voz Que Clama Mission near Turrialba took them in and they are safely hid for the moment. We are doing our best to get medical attention for the child. PANI (think children and family services) is out of the question as they will take the child and the Mother will never see her baby again. Rural local hospitals and clinics leave a bit to be desired and have few or no specialists.

This family can never go back to the reservation again, or they will be taken care of (the cultural thing I mentioned). The Mission has other residents who survived their own personal attempted executions on the reservation. One young man with a spinal cord injury that happened when he fell out of a tree, was beaten and stoned by his own family, he has scars from head to toe.

My daughter a volunteer at the Mission is renting a house by the Mission and I mentioned to her that perhaps the Indigenous woman and child could move into the casita at the house, so we are looking into that.

The Mission is in desperate need of powered milk, rice and beans. You can go to the Mission website http://vqcmission.com/ hit the Paypal button and donate now. We will then buy rice and beans to help these very poor Indigenous people, the first people of Costa Rica. Or perhaps you would be kind enough to collect bags of rice and beans from among your friends. We can arrange to pick them up from one central location. Perhaps Vicki Skinner would collect them for us. Bernie at the Pura Vida Hotel is always very kind to the Mission, I am sure he would also be a collection point if that works for you.

I would not ask you for help at this time if the need were not so overwhelming for us. Their reality is difficult to take in. How can these atrocities be happening in 2008 in our back yard?

Thank you for helping.

Blessings,
Ginnee
2531-1047

Ginnee y Felipe Hancock
Finca Quijote de Esperanza, SA
Costa Rica
http://www.costaricamountain.blogspot.com
ginnee@racsa.co.cr

I just went to the site and gave $50. Yes, the last of the Big Spenders. The PayPal button is at the bottom of the page, you don’t need a PayPal account, just a credit card. Please give whatever you can: $5 in Costa Rica is a fortune, especially when you are talking rice and beans. I know all these people, have touched them with my own hands. Every penny will go to help the indigenous people. Peace.

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