#NavajoStrong campaign launches to help fight COVID-19 on Nation

WINDOW ROCK, Ariz. — The Navajo Nation president and vice president have partnered with #ProtectTheSacred, actor Mark Ruffalo, Allie Young, and many others to launch the #NavajoStrong campaign to call for medical volunteers and donations to help fight COVID-19 on the Navajo Nation.

Protect the Sacred started as an emergency response to the growing crisis in the Navajo Nation from COVID-19. The Navajo Nation is 27,000 square miles (roughly the size of West Virginia) with 175,000 living on the reservation. It has 13 grocery stores, 12 health facilities, 170 hospital beds, 13 ICU beds, 52 isolation rooms and 28 ventilators.

According to the campaign’s website, a group of local healthcare professionals were concerned that too many Navajo people were unaware of the serious danger and harm that the virus could inflict on the Navajo Nation. They asked Allie Young, a citizen of the Navajo Nation and former employee of Shiprock Indian Health Service, to assist with encouraging youth to be leaders in the moment by relaying information about the virus and helping to keep their families home.

The grassroots initiative’s goal is to educate and empower Navajo youth and young people throughout Indian Country to rise up as the next generation of leaders in protecting elders, languages, medicine ways and culture, according to the site.

“Right now our communities are being endangered by the COVID-19 virus and we must work together to slow and stop the spread of the virus to the most vulnerable,” the site stated.

More information or to watch the PSA for #NavajoStrong and a special message from supporters of the Navajo Nation visit www.protectthesacred.care.