Electricity companies that hold concessions in the Amazon region are making donations to indigenous communities to help fighting the covid-19 pandemic.

Evoltz transmission company allocated R$ 689,500 to emergency actions to fight the pandemic among indigenous, quilombolas, riverside and family farming communities in two territories in Pará (Calha do Norte do Rio Amazonas and Terra do Meio).

The amount is intended to the purchase of basic baskets with food, personal hygiene and cleaning items for 1,500 families. Part of the amount will also be used as working capital to encourage agro-extractive activities by means of the direct purchase of copaiba, Brazil nuts and coumaru oil, for example.

Evoltz's donation will be made in partnership with the Forestry and Agricultural Management and Certification Institute (Imaflora - Manejo e Certificação Florestal e Agrícola) and within the scope of the Origens Brasil network, which brings together 1,700 producers in the Amazon region and promotes sustainable business in priority conservation areas.

The resources to fight the covid-19 pandemic are the first release of a total donation of R$ 5.9 million from Evoltz, which will be made over two and a half years to ensure the maintenance of local populations’ livelihood in vulnerability situations.

“Our commitment is to create a lasting bond with the communities”, says João Nogueira Batista, Evoltz CEO.

 Norte Energia, to its turn, a concessionaire of the Belo Monte Hydroelectric Power Plant, made a donation of R$ 6 million to face the covid-19 in the Xingu region. The funds made it possible to deliver 1,500 basic food baskets to Funai, to supply communities in the Médio Xingu region, and to provide 126,000 personal protective equipment (PPE) to the 10th Regional Center of the State Public Health Department of Pará (Sespa-Secretaria Estadual de Saúde Pública do Pará), in Altamira, to strengthen health services in nine municipalities in Xingu.

“An order of 110 thousand PPE and thousands of disease-detecting tests are on the way, as well as 10 ICU (Intensive Care Unit- Unidade de Terapia Intensiva UTI) complete beds with respirators and monitors, which will reinforce the local health system coordinated by Sespa”, says Norte Energia.