An app created in Oaxaca aims to bridge Mexico’s health communication gap by publishing information about Covid-19 in indigenous languages. 

How Covid-19 Has Impacted Mexico’s Indigenous Communities 

Mexico’s indigenous communities have felt the brunt of Covid-19. Some health advocates critique President Andrés Manuel López Obrador and other government leaders for not effectively supporting Mexico’s large population of indigenous people during the pandemic. In 2020, the Yucatan Times reported a Covid-19 mortality rate of 12% in indigenous communities, at least two percentage points above Mexico’s average. 

Indigenous women in particular have protested this health inequality by demonstrating outside the National Palace in Mexico City, distributing health supplies to neighbors, and petitioning for government intervention. 

How The App “Protégete En Tu Lengua” Bridges Indigenous Language Barriers

In Oaxaca, young people in the Colectivo Ñuu Ayava (Ñuu Ayava Collective) and the Jóvenes Embajadores Lingüísticos (Young Language Ambassadors) noticed this public health problem. In Mexico, most information about the pandemic is published in Spanish, not in indigenous languages.