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WiRED Returns to Peruvian Amazon to Launch
Two Community Health Education Facilities
BY ALLISON KOZICHAROW; EDITED BY BERNICE BORN
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iRED International begins 2014 with a return to the remote Amazon headwaters of eastern Peru, where we will set up Community Health Education (CHE) facilities in the towns of Iquitos and Pevas.
Our CHE centers will educate the community about health issues we identified previously as critical and specific to this population, including maternal and child health, nutrition, water-borne illnesses and treatments, oral rehydration therapy and a range of tropical illnesses.
WiRED's Partners in this Project
Project Amazonas is an NGO that began its work in 1994 to serve the people of the Amazon and conserve the rainforest. Project Amazonas Director Devon Graham, Ph.D. is providing logistical support, and staffers Fernando Rios Tulumba and Guillermo Guerra are working closely with our team in Peru.
The Polus Center for Social and Economic Development has introduced WiRED to the needs of communities in this region of Peru. Polus is a non-profit organization that creates opportunities for persons with disabilities.
WiRED, in coordination with our partners at Project Amazonas, will install a CHE facility at del Centro de Salud in Iquitos. Though Iquitos is completely isolated from land travel, it offers most of the conveniences of a city, including power and Internet access.
Clinic operators, trained by WiRED, can offer existing modules in our online e-library (W-HELP). Further, WiRED has loaded the library onto portable devices, so visiting villagers can take these health education programs with them.
We will inaugurate our second regional CHE Center at the clinic in Pevas, a hub for many villages in the area and a ten-hour voyage from Iquitos by river. Lacking electrical power from the national grid, Pevas operates a generator for three hours each evening. The WiRED team will provide a complete solar system and bring along a solar engineer, who will set up the equipment. Solar will power computers, monitors and a projector (for group training sessions). Solar energy also will provide the clinic with lighting during the day. In addition to setting up the CHE facility, WiRED will train the staff and hold several community health training sessions.
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The WiRED team will include WiRED’s director Gary Selnow, Ph.D., and webmaster Brian Colombe. We will be joined by Shauna Stoeger, a graduate student from Florida State University, who will translate for us in Iquitos. WiRED will partner with Project Amazonas, who will assist with logistics and provide river transportation to Pevas. The U.S.-based Polus Center has also contributed to this effort.
With this fourth trip to Peru, WiRED continues its mission to provide people in the Amazon with tools to improve their community health.
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