COVID-19 Peru Project #51546

Covid-19 medical relief in the Peruvian Amazon

by Project Amazonas, Inc.

Summary

Peru is one of the hardest-hit countries by Covid-19, and the Peruvian Amazon region has suffered particularly harshly. Hospitals and health systems have collapsed, and rural communities have been largely abandoned to deal with the pandemic on their own. There is literally no oxygen for Covid patients dying in the lungs of the planet. We are raising funds to directly supply medications to small rural communities, and to aid civic groups providing care to the poorest citizens of Iquitos, Peru.

$15,000
total goal

$376
remaining

94
donors

4
monthly donors

9
months

Challenge

The Peruvian Amazon has been hit hard by Covid-19. With hospitals on the verge of collapse, medicines hard to come by, and relief efforts focused on large urban centers, small rural communities have been essentially abandoned. Project Amazonas has a 20+ year history of providing medical services to 80+ riverine communities accessible only by boat. Although our regular medical campaigns have had to be cancelled, we can still provide critical medications and supplies to these communities.

Solution

Hope, and the knowledge that they haven't been forgotten might well be the greatest gift we can give to rural communities in the Amazon. Our boats and Peruvian crew are still in the Amazon, and even if we cannot mount full-fledged medical service campaigns with international participants, our crew can take critical supplies to far-flung communities and work with the community health workers that we know in each village to ensure that medicines and supplies are used correctly and appropriately.

Long-Term Impact

Apart from the immediate benefits of providing essential medications for a wide range of health needs, this effort will also strengthen the role of community health workers (CHWs) and other leaders in each community, enabling better education of residents with regards to Covid and other health issues, and laying the groundwork for advanced training for CHWs in conjunction with Wired International and other partner organizations in the immediate future.