Two indigenous children aged 7 and 9 were found to be suffering from severe malnutrition after they spent 25 days lost in the Amazon jungle in Brazil and eating only wild fruits. The children, named Glaucon and Gleison, were found on Tuesday by a relative “35km from where they disappeared” suffering from “severe malnutrition and dehydration,” Januario Carneiro da Cunha Neto, coordinator of the Special Indigenous Health District, told AFP on Friday. (DSEI) Manaus, the capital of the state of Amazonas, where the children went missing.
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Hospitalized, “now they are gaining weight and nothing threatens their lives,” he added. Two brothers from the Moura ethnic group have been missing since February 18 when they went birding in the jungle in the municipality of Manicor, 330 km from Manaus. During their stay in the jungle, “they only drank rainwater and lake water and ate sorva” (sorbus domestica), a fruit high in carbohydrates and fat, said Januario Carneiro da Cunha Neto.
Rosinete da Silva Carvalho, the mother of the children and their ten siblings, told the local press that “they ate sorrel because my eldest son always took a bag when he went hunting.” The footage published by local media shows that after the rescue, the children are severely malnourished. Their discovery is the result of chance, as the official search was suspended a week after their disappearance.
“A friend of the family who went to get firewood accidentally found the children,” said the coordinator of the DSEI. During long days of unsuccessful attempts to find his way home, the eldest child, Gleison, looked after his younger brother, carrying him on his back when he was too exhausted due to lack of food and water. This adventure is reminiscent of what pilot Antonio Sena experienced in early 2021, surviving 38 days lost in the Brazilian Amazon after his passenger plane crashed.