Follow the IHACC team's activities at the ArcticNet Annual Scientific Meeting 2015, December 7th to 11th in Vancouver

Follow the Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change project team's activities at ArcticNet Annual Scientific Meeting 2015 here!

  IHACC project team members at ASM2015

Dr. James Ford
IHACC project Primary Investigator

Climate Change Adaptation Research Group
Department of Geography, McGill University

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Dr. Sherilee Harper
IHACC project Co-Investigator

EcoHealth Research with Indigenous Communities
Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph

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Anna Bunce
IHACC project Masters Student

Supervisor: Dr. James Ford
Department of Geography, McGill University

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Kaitlyn Finner
IHACC project Masters Student

Supervisor: Dr. James Ford
Department of Geography, McGill University

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Knut Tjensvoll Kitching
IHACC project Masters Student

Supervisor: Dr. James Ford
Department of Geography, McGill University

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Carlee Wright
IHACC project Masters Student

Supervisor: Dr. Sherliee Harper
Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph

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Manpreet Saini
IHACC project Masters Student

Supervisor: Dr. Sherliee Harper
Department of Population Medicine, University of Guelph

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IHACC project presentations at ASM2105

Wednesday December 9th 2015   Arctic Wildlife 1 Chair: Dominique Berteaux Room: Oak 10:45 Knut Tjensvoll Kitching Tuktu and Climate Change: Inuit Hunting on Southern Baffin Island     Thursday December 10th 2015   Northern Food Security 1 Chair: Sara Statham Room: Marine 11:00 Kaitlyn Finner Food From Here There, From Us and Them; Characterizing the Food System of Rigolet, Nunatsiavut   Community Health and Well Being 2 Chair: Mylène Riva Room: Mackenzie 14:30 Manpreet Saini Participatory Methods in Rigolet: Evaluation of Inuit Health Programs and Collaborative Development of a Whiteboard Video for Health Promotion   Community Health and Well Being 3 Chair: Shelley Tulloch Room: Mackenzie 15:45 Carlee Wright Drinking Water Consumption Patterns and Changes Over Time in Rigolet, Nunatsiavut     Friday December 11th 2015   The Scoop on Northern Poop Chairs: Sherilee Harper, David Goldfarb & Cédric Yansouni Room: Mackenzie 09:30 Sherilee Harper Foodborne, Waterborne, and Zoonotic Enteric Disease: EcoHealth Surveillance for Environmental Health   Click here to access the full ArcticNet ASM2015 conference schedule  

IHACC project posters at ASM2105

Jahir Anicama Diaz hosting an event at the Peruvian Pavilion at COP21 on December 10th

IHACC-Peru team member Jahir Anicama Diaz will be leading an official event at the Peruvian Pavillion at COP21 in Paris (Hall 4) on Thursday December 10th at 14:00. The event will consist in a discussion group aiming to provide a space for dissemination and learning among organizations involved in adaptation and resilience to climate change in the health sector. Topics covered will include: - A review of adaptation strategies of local populations in the Peruvian Amazon. - A proposal for a national community-based adaptation plan by Peruvian indigenous organizations. - The state of resilience by local rural communities of Chile. - The importance of climate risk management in health. - An analysis of how the Climate Change Convention addresses the concept of resilience in health.

See below for the event flyer and program schedule.

  Event Program:

14:00 – 14:05 pm...Welcome, Jahir Anicama, M.Sc. , Cayetano Heredia Foundation / Cayetano Heredia University

14:05 – 14:15 pm...Experience of Peru – Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change project 2012 - 2016, Jahir Anicama, M.Sc. , Cayetano Heredia Foundation / Cayetano Heredia University

14:15 – 14:30 pm...National Strategy of Climate Change Adaptation of Indigenous People, Rosilda Nunta Guimaraes, Sra, AIDESEP

14:30 – 14:45 pm...The resilience of local communities in Chile, Paulina Alduce, PhD, University of Chile / Climate Science Center and resilience

14:45 – 15:00 pm...Resilience in climate risk management in health, Pablo Suárez, PhD, Red Cross

15:00 – 15:15 pm...UNFCCC and health resilience, Elena Villalobos, MSc, MA, WHO

15:15 – 15:30 pm...Questions and final words

  For more information on this event, contact Jahir via email here.

Notes from the field: Update from the IHACC evaluation project

Text and photos by Mya Sherman.

“So you’re saying that the kids in the Amazon play soccer just like we do?” asked an enthusiastic third grader at the Joamie Ilinniarvik School in Iqaluit, Nunavut. The question came at the end of a classroom visit where I spoke to the students in grade three and grade four about the IHACC communities in the Peruvian Amazon. The classes were in the middle of a community comparison unit, looking at other communities around the world and how they compared to Iqaluit. After almost five years of working with Shipibo and Shawi communities in the Peruvian Amazon on the Indigenous Health Adaptation to Climate Change (IHACC) research program, it was a surreal experience to show my pictures of hot boat rides on the Ucayali River while it was -20C outside. While there were stark differences between daily life for the children in Panaillo and the children in Iqaluit, I was struck by the strong similarities and shared values that exist between the different communities, particularly the importance of traditional foods in bringing people together.

My trip to Iqaluit came after almost nine months of data collection for the IHACC evaluation project (also known as the Evaluating Indigenous Vulnerability and Adaptation Research (EIVAR) project). The project aims to reflect on local experiences with the IHACC research program and other community-based adaptation research projects in the three IHACC regions, which include the Peruvian Amazon, southwestern Uganda, and the Canadian Arctic. The ultimate goal of the project is to evaluate IHACC and to develop a framework that can be used to monitor and evaluate other community-based adaptation research programs.

Since early February, we have been conducting semi-structured interviews and focus groups with IHACC researchers, institutional partners, and community members to talk about their experiences with the IHACC program and their views on research. After spending extensive time in Uganda and Peru earlier this year, I was very excited to experience the Canadian Arctic and to complete the data collection for this project.

My trip to Iqaluit was an incredibly rich experience. The work went very smoothly thanks to the kind folks at the Nunavut Research Institute and the great support I received from my research assistant, Ooloota. For the first week, I was also accompanied by Anna Bunce, who introduced me to some key IHACC collaborators and personal friends in town. In my experience across the IHACC regions, it has been essential to be introduced by someone who already has a strong relationship with the community, and Anna’s excellent connections and advice further highlighted this point. I soon felt right at home and quickly learned that being from the Boston area was an immediate source of bonding with the many Bruins fans living in Iqaluit. Over the two weeks, I spent many evenings with my new friend, Naomi, learning about how to make the best kamiks (traditional sealskin boots), eating delicious country food, and trying my hand at radio bingo. I was also able to speak with the Nunavut Teacher Education Program at Arctic College about the Indigenous communities in Peru and Uganda, which tied into their discussion of cross-cultural communication in teaching. I became so busy that I hardly noticed the days getting shorter and was surprised when my last day had only six hours of daylight.

As the data collection phase of this project comes to a close, I feel so grateful for the warmth and openness of the people I have encountered in every IHACC region this year. I look forward to sharing the results of this evaluation in the upcoming months and hope that the ‘best practices’ and ‘lessons learned’ we identify from this work can inform and improve research with these communities in the future.

Kaitlin Patterson wins prize for PhD presentation at OVC Graduate Student Research Conference

Kate Patterson won 2nd prize for best PhD oral presentation on November 18th at the Ontario Veterinary College Graduate Student Research Conference. Kate's presentation examined the seasonal variation of food security among the Batwa of Kanungu.

Rebecca Wolff wins poster prize at the 22nd Canadian Conference on Global Health

Congratulations to Rebecca Wolff for winning the overall prize and poster competition for the “most innovative research” at the 22nd Canadian Conference on Global Health. The conference took place in Montreal, from November 5th to 7th.

Poster Citation: Wolff, R., Harper, S.L., et al. “Its spirit is strong: Shawi healers, spirits and diarrhea in the Amazon” Canadian Conference of Global Health, Montreal. 5-6 November 2015.

Abstract

Waterborne illness remains a public health challenge faced by many Indigenous communities. The Shawi, a dominant Indigenous group in the Peruvian Amazon, have retained the majority of their cultural practices and belief systems. Indigenous illness perceptions may not always reflect known biomedical causes of disease, making some health interventions ineffective. The goal of this research was to explore how Shawi perceptions on the causes of diarrhea, as a symptom of waterborne illness, related to Shawi beliefs and cosmology about water. Semi-structured interviews were conducted in two Shawi communities in August 2014 to document beliefs regarding water spirits and the role of traditional healers in causing diarrhea. Results of this study showed Shawi perceptions on the causes of diarrhea were predominately based in beliefs around water spirits and the ability of traditional healers to cause diarrhea, as opposed to a belief in diarrhea caused by biomedical risk factors for waterborne illness, such as the consumption of contaminated water. This research highlights how understanding Indigenous perceptions of illness is essential to informing the design of more effective health interventions to reduce waterborne illness in Amazonian Indigenous Communities.