The Medical Project - What We Do

A 3-year medical Project in Ancash Province, Peru

This will be a 3-year team project, for which we hope to raise $100,000 in cash. As of the present, we have already received some $100,000 in donated equipment, including the much needed microscopes.

Our Goals

Immediate goals

Our first goal is to obtain a 4WD vehicle and equip it with a computerized tri-ocular microscope that would allow digitized color images of microscopic images of pathological specimens to be catalogued and stored, so that color copies can be made for distribution to each medical clinic for diagnostic and teaching purposes.

Intermediate Goals

We also hope to train a team of local nurses and health personnel in the diagnosis and treatment of parasitic infestations and the many infectious diseases that largely remain untreated.

Long term Goals

We plan to conduct an epidemiological survey of the extent of parasitic and worm infestations in the region, conduct a public relations campaign to educate and inform the population that the ravages of disease that have crippled, maimed and killed so many among them can be prevented and treated.

We will identify further measures that the government can adopt administratively to combat these serious medical problems and propose them to the Peruvian Ministry of Health.

Our Team

Our volunteers are from two groups: from the US, and local Peruvians. Our aim is to live among the people, and gradually win their trust. Following that,

-- we will share health information with them, and help them understand the true cause of their illnesses, by showing them pictures of worms, their eggs and the various parasites and microorganisms that cause disease.

-- We will also work closely with the health personnel in the Medical Clinics, and help them in using the microsopes effectively to make accurate diagnoses, so that effective treatment can then be instituted.

-- We will work with teachers and students in the high schools, and show them microscopic images of worms and parasites that are frequently found on their fruits and vegetables. By demonstrating microscopic worms and their eggs in the stools of adults and children alike, we hope to convince the villagers to take measures to prevent their transmission to their children.

-- We will be working closely with the Ministerio de Salud (the Ministry of Health) to come up with administrative measures that the Government of Peru can adopt that will result in a more efficient delivery of health care, especially to their citizens who cannot afford to pay for medical care.

-- We will track our progress by conducting epidemiological surveys in the region. It is our hope that after 3 years, we will have helped to significantly improve the health of these children, and laid a foundation so that many more of their children will survive beyond their tenth birthday than presently do.