By Devon Graham | President / Scientific Director
A huge “Thank You” to everyone who made our April GlobalGiving Campaign a great success. We set out to raise $15,000 for Covid-19 relief in the Peruvian Amazon, and we met and surpassed that goal. To date over $16,000 has been raised (not everyone donated through GlobalGiving, so the true total isn’t shown on that platform). Our stated objective was to split the funds raised three ways. One-third to support the Orosa Clinic, and one-third in direct medical relief to rural communities. Lastly in honor of our colleague and friend Guillermo Guerra who passed away from Covid on 3 March 2021, one-third was designated to support Kanatari, the Catholic Diocese medical facility where he was cared for. Kanatari provides critical care to many of the most underserved and disadvantaged persons in Iquitos, and the diocese is one of the few truly trusted institutions in Iquitos.
Myself and Father Miguel Fuertes in Iquitos (left). At center, community health workers inaugurate a first meal in the new dining hall at Madre Selva Biological Station, and at right, participate in a refresher training session.
During my May/June trip, we were also able to purchase a substantial quantity of medications to restock our Orosa River clinic. Other medications were sent to communities represented by Community Health Workers participating in a refresher workshop at the Madre Selva Biological Station. Additional packets of essential medications were distributed during a return visit to the Amazon in July 2021.
With the GlobalGiving campaign being a success, Project Amazonas is now a permanent member of the GlobalGiving community (we needed to show that we could raise at least $5000 from 40 or more unique donors during the duration of the official three-week campaign). We can now post unlimited additional campaigns for general or specific purposes on the GlobalGiving platform and will do so in mid-August. As a bonus, donors in the UK can now receive an official receipt for tax purposes, something that we were unable to do previously (US donors have always had that benefit).
A very special thank you to everyone who elected to donate on a monthly basis. Even if it is a modest amount, those modest amounts add up and really help us to plan our budgeting more effectively. Thanks!
A full report from the Peruvian Amazon was posted on our website in early July and covers other topics as well as the GlobalGiving fundraising. It can be accessed at www.projectamazonas.org/blog (or click the link below), and contains many additional photos.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
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