Physical Health Peru Project #60887

Community Health Worker Program

by EcoSwell

Project Report | May 18, 2026
Building Healthier Futures in Lobitos and Talara

By Alejandro Pizarro | Director of Research and Communications

Dear GlobalGiving Friends and Supporters,

It is my pleasure to bring you this latest update on our public health projects in Lobitos. It has been a busy few months, with progress on our community anaemia monitoring, dengue research, HPV screening campaigns, and more! And as always, our medical volunteer interns are continuing to assist and provide care to patients at our local medical post, both right here in Lobitos and in neighbouring Talara, as a result of our new partnership with the hospital there.

Anaemia monitoring

Last month, our public health ambassador Carmen Thompson Perea held an anaemia monitoring and information workshop with local mothers in Lobitos, where attendees can have their haemoglobin levels checked. This supplements a similar effort that took place in February where 85 people were tested in the community. Throughout educating and empowering local women, we are helping to improve health outcomes for entire families in the community, as well as aligning our public health initiatives with national priorities, as Peru’s public health guidelines highlight the importance of fighting the high prevalence of iron-deficiency anaemia and associated comorbidities across the country. Further to this, we have evaluated and improved the maternal and paediatric anaemia programmes as a whole by conducting literature reviews and quantitative and qualitative field research, as well as by meeting with representatives from Lucky Iron Life who provide us with the iron supplementation products that we distribute. Lastly, we introduced new intervenciones de acompanamiento for mothers and have several exciting things coming in the next few months.

Cervical cancer screening/HPV project

We have conducted the first EcoSwell-supported cervical cancer screening campaign at the Lobitos Medical Post, which included HPV testing for the first time in Lobitos, as well as continuing to support HPV vaccination efforts and conducting pap smear tests for local women. Our latest numbers from May 3rd show that 22 women have been screened so far. As part of this campaign, EcoSwell also donated 100 speculums, 200 gloves, and paper for the examination table to the medical post.

New serum nurse

We are delighted that a new serum nurse will shortly be deployed at the Lobitos Medical Post, and EcoSwell looks forward to working with them in regards to vaccination, paediatric health, and other public health campaigns.

Dengue interventions

We have conducted research on national dengue vector control guidelines and strategies from the Ministry of Health and were able to interview Erike Eche, the head of surveillance and larvicide administration in Lobitos. In addition, we also attended a meeting with the Subregional Ministry of Health’s prevention and promotion expert, who provided the agenda for Lobitos to the local medical post. We are proud to be able to support the fight against this endemic disease in the local community.

As we near this year’s half-way mark, we are so proud to be able to continue to make a real difference to health outcomes in this tight-knit community and beyond, but none of it would be possible without your ongoing support. Thank you for helping us make a meaningful impact.

With gratitude,

Alejandro Pizarro

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Jan 16, 2026
A Year of Improving Health Outcomes in Lobitos

By Alejandro Pizarro | Director of Research and Communications

Dear GlobalGiving Friends and Supporters,

Happy New Year! It is my pleasure to bring you this latest update on our public health projects in Lobitos. It has been a busy final quarter of 2025, with progress on our community anaemia monitoring, dengue research, a brand new partnership, and more! And as always, our medical volunteer interns are continuing to assist and provide care to patients at our local medical post, right here in Lobitos. Last year, we provided a total of 215 medical consultations, and we aim for even more this year!

Anaemia monitoring program

As per our last report, our anaemia monitoring program continues in full force during September and October, with the assistance of three final-year medical students that joined the medical volunteer internship programme. Alongside a local paramedic and EcoSwell staff members, the group travelled around the community going from house to house to record haemoglobin levels, in total screening nearly 100 individuals in Lobitos and Primavera.

Iron-deficiency anaemia is a widespread issue in Peru and disproportionately affects rural communities like ours, and our goal is to reduce the severity of co-morbidities that may result from the poor health outcomes associated with this condition, such as Covid, and in particularly dengue, which is very prevalent locally. Combined with our Community Health Worker initiative plus our distribution of fortified iron products, we are spearheading efforts to improve outcomes in our community. Moreover, In September, we distributed Globitos, a cereal fortified with iron that is manufactured by a local Peruvian non-profit, allowing families and households to easily increase their dietary iron intake and health fight anaemia, in addition to our longstanding distribution of Lucky Iron Life fortified products.

A vision clinic for the local community

In September, our medical volunteer interns held a public health workshop in a local kindergarten. This workshop was a targeted public health intervention to identify any loss of eyesight and other early-onset vision problems that might be present among young children in the local community. This is a particularly essential service in our hometown of Lobitos as there is currently no other provider of eyesight and vision care in the area.

A brand new partnership!

Last month, we were delighted to announce a brand new partnership with the Centro de Salud Talara II, the main hospital in our nearest major city, which is also the provincial capital. This means that from now on, medical elective volunteers will be able to consult and treat patients there as well as at our local medical post. Additionally, we will also be extending our donations of medical equipment, medicine, and vaccinations to the hospital. This hospital is the main port-of-call for the healthcare needs of Talara’s population, which is nearing 100 000 people, and this figure does not include those who travel into the city from elsewhere in the province to seek medical care. We are delighted to see our public health programme continue to make such a huge impact not only to our local community, but to the wider region.

Presenting our ongoing dengue research project

We were delighted to see our brilliant public health ambassador Carmen Thompson Perea present our ongoing project researching the determinants of dengue incidence in the Piura region of Piura. We were invited by the Royal School of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene to their Research in Progress Conference at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dengue is endemic in our local community and is particularly affected by weather variables during El Nino years, which this research project hopes to further investigate. It was a great opportunity to receive feedback as we move this project forward, and we must extend a huge thank you to Carmen as well as our past research volunteer interns Ruairidh O’Reed-Embleton, Anson Kong, and Magnus Heien Haugstad for their work on this project.

Donations to our local medical post

Our longstanding partnership with the Lobitos Medical Post continues into 2026, and we were able to provide a donation of medical equipment just in time for the new year. This donation comprised 150 microwells for haemoglobin monitoring, 200 lancets for blood sampling, as well as 4 packs of latex gloves.

As we move into 2026, we are so proud to be able to continue to make a real difference to health outcomes in this tight-knit community and beyond, but none of it would be possible without your ongoing support. Thank you for helping us make a meaningful impact.

With gratitude,

Alejandro Pizarro

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Sep 19, 2025
Together for Better Health Outcomes in Lobitos

By Alejandro Pizarro | Director of Research and Communications

Dear GlobalGiving Friends and Supporters,

As mentioned in our last report, we have continued to expand our workshops in the Community Health Worker program over the last few months, with the goal of addressing the high rates of anaemia, hypertension, and diabetes in the community. In June and July, we held workshops in Lobitos aimed primarily at local mothers to try and boost family and household health outcomes. This workshop combined educational sessions and hands-on practice, such as demonstrating healthy cooking techniques, and measuring blood pressure and haemoglobin. During these workshops, 29 individuals had their haemoglobin levels measured for the first time, while 23 returning participants attended follow-up haemoglobin checks.

We aim in particular to reduce the severity of co-morbidities that may result from poor health outcomes, such as Covid, and especially dengue, which is very prevalent locally. To help combat this, volunteer interns from our research program have been conducting interviews with officials from the local health departments to better understand the spread of dengue in the community, and we endeavour to use these results to further combat the spread of this disease in the future.

Furthermore, our longstanding partnership with Lucky Iron Life has strengthened these past few months, with continuing donations of the Lucky Iron Fish product, a fish-shaped cast iron ingot that can be boiled with liquids during cooking to provide dietary iron supplementation and fight iron-deficiency anaemia. Last month, we distributed 19 such products, with 18 of these going to new families joining our program, which now brings the total number of participants to 48.

In addition, we are pleased to announce that we were able to donate a wide variety of medical products and equipment to the local Lobitos Medical Post last month, such as blood pressure monitors, urine sample bottles, and minor surgical kits. And as always, our volunteer interns on our Public Health program continue to treat patients at the local Lobitos Medical Post. 41 patients were treated from July to September, and we are proud to be able to make a real difference to health outcomes in this tight-knit community.

Your ongoing support makes all of this possible. Thank you for helping us make a meaningful and measurable impact in our community.

With gratitude,

Alejandro Pizarro

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