Local traditions of cultural isolation

The geographic isolation of certain ethnic groups creates difficulties in the administration of social welfare and education and facilitates the persistence of prejudice, discrimination and exploitation.

This problem occurs particularly with nomadic tribes who live and move in remote and inaccessible terrains. These people are under-privileged regarding social services because of the difficulty of reaching them; but they do not, in most cases, lack contact with civilized outsiders, who may exploit them. The introduction of a new way of life shatters their existing social patterns, reducing them to dependency, pauperization; and in many instances they resort to alcoholism and drug dependency to alleviate their situation. They contract new diseases from the outsiders to which they have no resistance and these often prove fatal. They are in need of social services, but these are not sufficiently available.