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Being a rural resident, a member of an indigenous group and poor often go hand in hand in Bolivia. About 70 per cent of country farmers whose mother tongue is Quechua, Aymara and Guarani live in extreme poverty, versus 20 per cent of Spanish speakers.
Raoul is one of these people. He lives with his wife and ten children on the outskirts of Ibiato, an indigenous village of Moxena people. He has TB and his weight has dropped to only 43 kg. Here it is not infrastructure which is lacking; the village of 250 people has two health clinics, one built with Global Fund support. "It is a social problem," comments Dr Aguilera, who heads up the local TB programme.
He has to cajole Raoul into following the programme because there is a perception that clinics are for the Spanish.
Dr Fernando Cisneros, responsible for the Global Fund's programme in Bolivia has used a mixture of local indigenous medicines and herbs together with the drugs to increase local acceptance of the TB programme. Raoul takes his medicine and the impasse is broken.
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