One of the four Indigenous children who were found alive after being lost for 40 days in the Colombian Amazon forest following a plane crash, is stretchered out of a plane upon landing at the CATAM military base in Bogota on 10 June 2023. Photo: Juan Barreto / AFP
Every now and again, a miracle happens – something you know should not really have been possible, at least not when existing, modern logic is brought to bear.
The rescue of four children – aged from just one year old to 13 – after they spent 40 days alone in the Colombian jungle following an air crash they survived, is just such a miracle. Tragically, their mother survived the impact only to die, as her children watched, four days later.
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One can only imagine the trauma of the kids – but we must also marvel at how they managed to keep themselves alive, by eating yucca flour that was aboard the doomed plane and scavenging from relief parcels dropped by search helicopters.
The children – identified as members of the indigenous people of Colombia – also ate fruit, seeds, roots and plants they identified from their upbringing and education in the Amazon jungle region.
That particular fact should give us pause for thought, as humans are increasingly removed from our roots in nature. It is also a reminder that there is a huge pool of indigenous knowledge lying largely untapped in many countries of the world.
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This is the sort of ancient wisdom which could, and does, save lives.
