First Aid Training for Shipibo Healers

Hello Folks! We have been working hard, expanding our programming and making it into more communties and regions. We now offer courses in First Aid, Injection Techniques, and Basic Suturing, all with Shipibo instructors and in Shipibo language.

An interesting story: We did our first ever course, which you all helped make possible, in collaboration with the Red Cross of Peru - Pucallpa. It was just one course, in Spanish, and we trained about 33 people, providing lunch and transport in addition to quality learning. The course material itsefl was good, and the instructor was a well-seasoned nurse and long-time Red Cross volunteer, who also managed the Pucallpa location. 

In the end, we paid over $1000 to the Red Cross for the certifications, which the instructor/manager never provided us with. She said there had been a change of staff in Lima and the list of participants got lost, and then several times said she was on her way to the office to deliver the certificates but never arrived. She also never gave us a receipt, which is legally standard. 

Now, we had promised Internationally recognized Red Cross certificates to our participants and it was a big disappointment, to us as well as them, that the certificates never arrived. We work hard to maintain integrity and a good image, and this was early on in our organizational development. Luckily, no one was overly upset and we were able to make it up to folks.

The Red Cross NOT delivering on what they said they would -- certificates -- inspired us to work with a team of local, Shipibo health professionals in developing our own courses. We have now taught First Aid and Injection Techniques to over 150 people, and our newest course, Suturing Basics, to about 40 people. All in total, the people come from over 50 different villages, and are incredibly grateful for the opportunity to learn and serve in their communities. 

Had the Red Cross provided the certificates, we probably would still be collaborating with them. But their failure led to the creation of a one-of-a-kind program of Intercultural Health Courses in Shipibo language, by Shipibo people and for Shipibo people. We have an official agreement with the Regional Ministry of Health and our courses are codified and validated by their director in their system.

We are in the process now of developing the next courses in our series, which total 18 modules. Up next is pharmacy/pharmacology and then several more, based in traditional values and perspectives. Thanks to the Indigenous Medicine Conservation Fund, we are able to continue providing and developing these courses. It's an incredible amount of work to take a week's worth of courses, instructors, food and supplies into a distant community, by boat, to be able to teach, and the effort is extraordinarily worth it.

Thank you all for your support and interest!