To provide critical health care resources, AmeriCares partners with local organization Volunteers for Inter-American Development Assistance Peru (VIDA Peru). We deliver critical medicines, medical supplies and other aid to hospitals, clinics, nutritional centers, children's homes and homes for the elderly.  Support for high impact medical outreach brigades on missions across the country is a major focus of aid.

See images of our work in Peru.

Snapshot of Peru:

Overall verall economic growth has reduced income disparity and total poverty in recent years. However, many of Peru’s poor, especially those living in dense cities, still lack the means to buy basic medicines. Rural communities, particularly for indigenous peoples, have very limited access to health care, save for volunteer medical missions. Critical health issues:

• Malaria and dengue fever are constant concerns
• Acute respiratory infections are one of the leading causes of death, particularly in rural and poor areas
• High maternal mortality rate among indigenous populations who lack access to maternal care

Since 1989, AmeriCares has delivered more that $186 million worth of medical aid and humanitarian relief to Peru. AmeriCares partners with VIDA Peru, a privately funded, local non-governmental organization (NGO) that supports public health establishments throughout Peru. Since 1995, VIDA Peru has helped put AmeriCares wide variety of medical and humanitarian assistance into the hands of the people most in need. VIDA’s large scale medical missions have brought treatment to thousands of people with limited access to health services.  At a 2006 gala event in Lima, VIDA honored AmeriCares for our more than 10 years of support.

In 2007, an 8.0 magnitude earthquake struck Peru's central coast, killing 514 and injuring 1,090. Pisco, the closest city to the epicenter, suffered massive losses of life, personal injury, and losses of property, as 80% of the city's buildings were destroyed. In surrounding areas, the damage to road infrastructure left mountainous regions without access to food supplies, health care, and hygiene items.

The toll on the health care sector was devastating; four hospitals were completely destroyed and 16 others significantly damaged. Immediately following the earthquake, the hardest hit region was operating with only 10% of its medical services capacity.

Within three days, an AmeriCares emergency response team was in Lima coordinating the distribution of medicines and medical supplies. AmeriCares and VIDA were the first private NGOs to deliver aid into Pisco. The AmeriCares airlift delivered crucial medical aid including antibiotics, analgesics, and wound care products.

AmeriCares also donates medical products to qualified U.S. health care professionals who are traveling to Peru to provide charitable medical care. Through this program, donated medicines and medical supplies reach impoverished and isolated communities where even basic medical care is inaccessible to the poor or often non-existent. AmeriCares donations cure infections, relieve pain, help patients manage chronic diseases and make life-changing surgeries possible.

Find out more about our Medical Outreach program