PRINT

WiRED Team, in Partnership with Project Amazonas, Installs Two Community Health Education Facilities in Peruvian Amazon

BY ALLISON KOZICHAROW, EDITED BY BERNICE BORN

Medical clinic in Iquitos—click image to enlarge.

iRED International returned from a 12-day trip to establish two Community Health Education (CHE) centers in Peru—one in Iquitos and one in Pevas.

WiRED’s team, including executive director Gary Selnow, Ph.D., and IT director Brian Colombe arrived in Iquitos to install computers loaded with our health training library at a clinic called Centro de Salud de San Juan. WiRED brought in some computer equipment not available in Peru, but as always we purchased as much equipment as possible from local vendors in support of local economies.

— PHOTO GALLERY —

Click the camera to view a slide show of WiRED's trip.

Next, WiRED’s team departed for Pevas, a 15-hour journey down the Amazon. We set sail on the Esperanza, the riverboat operated by our partner, Project Amazonas, a humanitarian organization devoted to the health of the people and the environment of the Peruvian Amazon.

Pevas serves as a hub supporting many smaller outposts along the Amazon and its many tributaries. WiRED team members brought in solar equipment to power the health training computers and monitors along with several lights for the clinic. Our health training library will supply Pevas and all surrounding villages with more than 300 courses in illness recognition, treatment and prevention.

Dr. Selnow and Mr. Colombe assisted in the computer connections and provided training for the physicians and staff at the local clinic, called the Centro de Salud Aclas Pevas. We installed our complete interactive library of health training programs and the equipment necessary to operate the health education program, including a community outreach effort to train children at schools and adults at group sessions at the clinic.

An Example of How We Work

At the Centro de Salud de San Juan in Iquitos, the WiRED team held a community training session for around 30 people on dengue, a serious mosquito-borne illness rampant in this region of the Amazon.

 

WiRED’s team worked with a local physician and a translator to present WiRED’s module on dengue, which is a leading cause of illness and death in this part of the Amazon, as it is in many tropical areas. Dengue fever symptoms include severe headache, high fever, pain behind the eyes; joint, muscle and bone pain; and rash. People at the training session discussed the key concepts of the module before voting on answers to questions posed throughout the lesson.

WiRED is ramping up its Spanish-language translations and will send them to the Iquitos and Pevas facilities, as well as to our other Spanish-language CHE centers in Latin America. In the future we will stay in close touch with clinic directors and provide assistance as needed.

As with all WiRED's programs, no recipient is charged to receive or use the equipment and training programs. This project was funded by generous individual donors, including WiRED board members, and the solar equipment was underwritten by an anonymous donor.

With our fourth trip to Peru, WiRED continues its mission to deliver the education and tools that enable people in the Amazon to improve their community health.

Click to view in English / en español.

^ Back to the Top