COVID IN NAVAJO: THE BIG COUGH

Mike Gulick is organizing this fundraiser on behalf of Mike Gulick.

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Hi. This is Jhana.

She is just one doctor helping out at one small hospital in the Navajo Nation.

Before she came here for COVID relief work, she had never seen this sort of poverty. This is a third world country inside the United States. Everyone tells you this before you visit, yet the meaning, in terms of health consequences, only strikes home when you speak with victims of this disease.

THEIR LIVES AND STORIES SHOULD MATTER.

Four colleagues/coworkers have died here in Shiprock. Innumerable have lost family, often more than one generation of family, in the closed cold cells of a COVID hospital room.

THE NAVAJO WERE ALREADY STRUGGLING TO SURVIVE BEFORE COVID

On the Navajo reservation, 1/3 of all homes lack electricity and 1/3 have no running water.

Today. In America.

The average education is 8th grade, many having dropped out to meet the survival needs of their families. 70% of adults here are without paid employment, though only a portion of these people are counted in unemployment statistics, others being categorized as voluntarily not working because all they have time or means to do is raise animals & crops for families.

Navajo Hogan: dirt floor dwelling heated with firewood.

Like all other humans, these people want clean water, good food, and access to healthcare. Fearlessly, they helped us win WWII and are currently trialing experimental vaccines to help our nation and the world recover from this disease.

The need here is unquenchable. I can't promise anything so grand as to change the state of poverty, water, electricity or provide access to decent education. What I can promise is that all funds will be used to help purchase PPE and supplies for the Navajo community and to provide support to frontline workers.

Thank you for your concern for these original Americans struggling to survive in a pandemic.
For those of you interested in more info on COVID-19 in the Navajo Nation, check this out:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/24/covid-native-americans-how-to-help-navajo-nation/3652816001/