Justice and Human Rights Peru Project #23520

Restore Health in Cerro de Pasco

by Source International

Project Report | Dec 10, 2020
Next actions for 2021!

By Laura Grassi | Project Manager

Monthly Donor Drive - 14-18 December

Giving Tuesday has been over for a week and now let's take stock of the donations received.

We are proud to announce that we have raised around 1200 euros from 18 donors, INCLUDING YOU!
We are delighted with this goal because, despite the complicated situation in which we find, your generosity was very appreciated!
We are proud to know that you all believe in our work that we are carrying out for ten years.

With the funds collected, we will perform a part of the Intellectual Quotient Test on adolescents of the Paraghsa community to establish the causal link between heavy metals human exposure and the onset of neuropsychological and behavioral problems that can be detected through the so-called "IQ Test".

Lead, together with manganese, mercury, and aluminum, are neurotoxic substances that reduce learning and concentration potential. These metals have been found in very high concentrations in the environment surrounding the mine, but no studies on this population have researched and established the effects.

This type of investigation is very common in mining areas when there is a need to attribute responsability to polluters.

This study, along with others we have planned for 2021, are critical to enriching the evidence of environmental contamination and human rights violations.

Also, THANKS TO YOU, THIS WILL BE POSSIBLE!

We ask you for the last effort for 2020.

From December 14-18, the GlobalGiving crowdfunding platform (that hosts our project) will match your generosity by 200% when you sign up for a NEW MONTHLY DONATION!!!

Monthly donations need to be for at least 4 months to be matched up to 200%.

If you donate 20 €, the project will receive 40 €!
The more you give, the more we get!

Tell your family and friends: together, we can really have a huge impact on 2021!

There’s never been a better time to support the Cerro de Pasco COMMUNITY!

Visit our project and donate from December 14 to 18 to get matched: https://bit.ly/2Ky8YFD

Links:

DONATE

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Sep 23, 2020
Our last report is out!

By Flaviano Bianchini | Project Leader

Our last report

We published our last study!!

Last week we published the results of our last studies. We printed a thousandth copies and our partners distributed all around the city of Cerro de Pasco and in the capital of Lima. We also organized a virtual event in order to share the results with everybody who is interested. The event included the participation of the mayor of the municipality of Simon Bolivar and two congress representatives and has seen a huge participation of people from Cerro de Pasco itself and from all over the country. In that opportunity not only we presented our last studio but we also took a look at the evolution of pollution and health situation in Cerro de Pasco over the last decade.

The video of the presentation is available on our YouTube channel and directly at this link.

If you want to know more about all details of our investigation some link below will help you, but the short answer is that the studio rise, unfortunately, lots of concerns about the health situation in Cerro de Pasco. We can see an increase of illnesses and pollution over the last few years. Comparisons of concentration of heavy metals in the children of Paragsha have highlighted the fact that, despite the reduction of production of the mine in the last decade, the concentration of such pollutants in their bodies have increased in the last three years. This obviously also dismount the theory that the health effect in the town are the results of pollution of the last decade or so. It is actually pretty clear that the pollution is still active in the town and that the children of Paragsha not only have accumulated it over the years but they are still affected today.

If you want to learn more about the details of the study you can download the summary of the study in English at this link, download the full study in Spanish at this link and you can also watch the presentation on our YouTube channel.

Meanwhile the Covid19 situation in Peru is slowly improving and we are optimistic that we can travel to Cerro de Pasco soon. Stay tuned for more updates about it!

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May 27, 2020
COVID19 update

By Flaviano Bianchini | Project Leader

Quilacocha Lake, the color is due to pollution

COVID19 slowed down our project but it did not stop it.

As we all know the world has changed a lot in the last few months. The travel bans and the global quarantine has obliged us to review our programs in Cerro de Pasco, and in general, a lot of things for our organization.

We were ready to go to Cerro de Pasco in March. We purchased equipment and flight tickets, we had our school ready and students identified. Everything was ready for us to go and implement our citizen science project. Then COVID19 has changed everything. We were forced to first postpone our flights and then cancel them. Schools in Peru were closed and we were unable to properly communicate with our partners.

Currently the situation in Europe is going better but in Peru it remains critical. In Cerro de Pasco schools are still closed and the forced quarantine is still in place. Travel ban is still in place and there is no official end to it. We were forced to postpone our citizen science project to a later stage.

Our developed word is moving everything online. But Peru, and Cerro de Pasco, is not the same then Europe or the United States. Connections are not reliable and lot of people do not have access to computers and smartphones, moving everything online is simply impossible. Furthermore, not everything can be moved online. We cannot sample water online nor analyze dust and pollution. The majority of organizations are moving everything on the digital platforms, but working in the filed requires a physical presence. The work of Source International requires a physical presence. It can be difficult in some situation, but it is what makes us different from other organizations.

However, we are moving online everything we can and we are also developing a new manual to be shared with partner organizations, to develop a basic community monitoring system even without us. This manual will be ready by the end of the year and it will be available for everybody who need it. Stay tuned and continue to support us also in this new challenge!

Skin rushes are a common result of pollution

Teaching water monitoring

Links:

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