In order to propose strategies that preserve and protect traditional medicine in Yucatan as a cultural heritage of the state, a State Committee composed of several local and federal agencies met in Mérida.
On the importance of this issue, the head of the Institute for the Development of the Mayan Culture (Indemaya), Eric Villanueva Mukul, stressed that this practice is essential to keep an ancestral legacy alive. A knowledge inherited by those who still practice this activity.
For this reason, he assured that the help and coordination of initiatives among the institutions that make up the State Committee of Traditional Mayan and Intercultural Health Medicine will be paramount to prevent it from being lost.
During the work meeting, the members agreed on the need to certify traditional doctors, because they are required to have the recognition of the different governmental bodies that make up this Committee.
For this issue, Indemaya will be responsible for uniting the necessary projects and strategies to be undertaken with other agencies and institutions related to the subject.
Also, it was proposed to promote a scheme to train Maya midwives, which are joined by state and federal agencies, with the aim of reducing the death rate in births.
In this session, the Institute reported that there is a registry of 609 traditional doctors in all of Yucatan and among the most representative types are midwives with 379, sobadores (Maya chiropractors) with 109, herbalists with 48, hueseros (bone specialists) with 37 and x’men (Maya Shamans) with 18.
It was specified that in the state there are 788 localities, where traditional medicine is still practiced and that are divided into three dependencies for attention: the Ministry of Health of Yucatan (SSY) with 370, the Prospera program of the Mexican Institute of Social Security ( IMSS) with 90 and Indemaya with 328.
In the meeting, held at the headquarters of the Institute, the delegate of the National Commission for the Development of Indigenous Peoples (CDI), Olivia Ku Crespo, as well as representatives of the Secretariats of Environment and Natural Resources (Semarnat), from Social Development (Sedesol), and Urban Development and Environment (Seduma), in addition to the SSY, the IMSS, and the Scientific Research Center of Yucatán (CICY).
Present were the Deputy Directors General, Juan José Luna Soria, and Planning and Administration, Carlos Grajales Peniche, as well as the head of the Department of Attention and Gestoría, Víctor Ramos, all of Indemaya.
TYT Newsroom with yucatanalamano.com
