Lily
Bower, AmeriCares associate for Latin America & Caribbean Partnerships,
shares a firsthand account of her experience with an AmeriCares-supported
medical brigade in Yangas, Peru. Medical brigades are teams of medical
professionals who travel to underserved communities and spend a day, or several
days at a time, providing needed care and medications to patients.
Yangas is only two
hours outside the capital, but it is a completely separate world. Most
residents here are too poor to access health services in Lima and often talk
about the city like it’s another country. The medical brigades AmeriCares
supports lessen this distance by bringing in skilled volunteer doctors to treat
patients on weekends from sunrise until sunset.
“In a single day, 500
patients received treatment.”
The brigade I attended
was set up in a local school. The chairs and desks were pushed to the corners
of the classrooms so they could be used as exam rooms, and the large, concrete
courtyard in the center of the school served as the waiting room and
registration area. When I arrived, there was already a long line of patients
waiting and a makeshift pharmacy set up in a dim storeroom. In a single day,
500 patients received treatment, including a young mother of three with a severely
malnourished 4-month-old. The doctors discovered the baby’s cleft palate was
preventing him from receiving the nutrition he needs from breastfeeding. A few
days later, one of the volunteers returned with specialized infant formula for
the baby, and the nearest medical clinic arranged for the follow-up care.
Volunteers run more
than two dozen of these one-day health clinics each year, crisscrossing the
country from the Amazons to the Andes and the frigid, southern border with
Bolivia. I am honored to be part of an organization supporting their
efforts with donations of medicines and medical supplies. Together we are
restoring health and saving lives.
