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Welcome to the PCF Website.
The Peruvian Children's Fund is embarked on a mission to help save the lives of young children living
high up in the lofty Andean mountains of central Peru!! Villagers living in these remote areas are desperately poor,
and have no access to good medical care.
Thus, many of these children suffer needlessly from parasitic and worm
infestations, from malaria, bacterial and viral illnesses of the lung, and from intestinal ailments causing dysentry,
diarrhea and dehydration . . . and death.
Many of these illnesses are easily treatable, if a proper diagnosis
can first be made. Unfortunately, none of the approximately 40 medical clinics in Ancash Province have the necessary
medical equipment, or trained medical personnel, that can make the proper diagnoses . . .
Without accurate
diagnosis, proper treatment is at best, haphazard.
The Peruvian
Children's Fund (PCF) is a humanitarian organization with a focus on children's health in central Peru.
History
Dr. John Wang, founder of the PCF, has been
in Ancash Province in central Peru twice since 2006 at the invitation of a Professor at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell.
Teams of engineering students have made numerous visits to the region over the last 10 years. Dr Wang was asked specifically
to evaluate the medical conditions in the region, long known to be one of the poorest in all of Peru.
Dr Wang is
a Cardiologist and an Internist by training, and an Adjunct Profesor at the University. Although he is not a specialist in
infectious diseases, what he saw in Peru greatly haunted him. Much against his natural inclinations, he felt he
simply had to return to Peru and try to do something for the children there.
During his
two trips, he saw a population ridden with disease - bronchitis, pneumonia, gastroenteritis, malaria, tuberculosis, and a
whole host of parasitic and worm infestations - in many cases, with no relief in sight . . .
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WHY IS THIS HAPPENING?
There are some 40 Medical Clinics in the region, serving approximately
100,000 villagers scattered over rugged mountain slopes ranging from 10,000 to 20,000 feet above sea level. However, none
of the clinics Dr. Wang visited had even basic equipment like a simple light microscope, or facilities to examine blood,
stool or sputa samples. Many of the clinics are not even heated, and do not have electrical power. Some do not even have
running water.
All the clinics are staffed by nurses or health technicians who make all the decisions about
treatment. Doctors make supervisory visits to these remote clinics very infrequently, perhaps once a month, and stay for but
a few hours.
Many of the villagers do not even come to the clinics. Some say they cannot afford
to pay for the medicines. Others felt that the treatment did not help their children.
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CAN ANYTHING BE DONE ABOUT IT?
We feel that the situation is so dire, that whatever we can do
at PCF will help significantly in alleviating the suffering, and improving the health of the children.
To begin with, the nurses at the clinics need to take good histories, make careful examinations, and follow up with
examinations of blood, sputa and stool samples, and make accurate diagnoses, before beginning treatment. Accurate records
need to be kept, and followup visits scheduled. . .
At the present, funding and staffing at the medical
clinics are such that this simply cannot be achieved.
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