Healthy school. Strategy of a Colombian community of indigenous Kankuamos for self-management in health

Abstract

Based on the case of a Colombian community of indigenous Kankuamos who have developed strategies for self-management of individual and collective health, this contextualized bibliographic review is intended to dialogue with various authors who have studied issues about processes of health/disease/care in the context of Latin American indigenous traditional medicine. It is analyzed whether the processes of autonomy are generators of new alternatives to avoid that the knowledge of traditional medicine is marginalized by the prevailing hegemony of the biomedical model in health systems, among them, in the Colombian health system. While this question is answered, the role of teachers as health promoters and proximity services is reviewed, in a situation of supposed autonomy in health as happens in the Colombian context. Situated in therapeutic complementarity and interculturality, the dialogue between educational institutions and institutions that provide health services can avoid the clash between medical models (biomedicine - traditional medicine). The "healthy school" project promotes intercultural dialogue of knowledge, advancing as a strategy to provide comprehensive health, education, and well-being to the Kankuama indigenous community.

KEY WORDS: processes of health/disease /care; health in indigenous contexts; ethnic identity; health anthropology; multiculturalism