Medical Project
Many of the remote communities in the Amazon have little or no access to healthcare provision and are inaccessible by road. Our medical ships are crucial in beginning to deliver a health care service in these places. With their shallow draughts they are able to travel up many of the Amazon's tributaries, tie-up along side a riverbank and wait for the crowds to gather.
The Project can only reach out to some of the regions of Amazonia as this area is so vast, but the aim is to serve three large river areas, visiting three monthly to establish a meaningful health service to the villages. Quarterly visits will not only allow the identification and management of chronic problems such as asthma and diabetes but also identify secondary needs such as cataract and hernia problems. At the moment villagers blind because of cataract or troubled by a hernia, have to pay for surgical treatment but they are too poor, so remain blind or in pain. Such patients, where possible will benefit from the operating facilities on the Amazon Hope 2; for example eye surgery and other minor operations.
A Health Worker will be recruited in each village, and trained in Iquitos by the Trust and by so doing ensure that when the Amazon Hope is not in the area there will continue to be a health presence in the community.
Regular visits will allow the delivery of comprehensive medical and dental health education. Already this work has begun with dental education of prime importance both in the Belen Clinic and also on the river trips.
Many of the communities visited do not have clean water or sanitation, the villagers coming down to the river to drink or carry water back to their homes. Dirty water of course, is responsible for much ill health through waterborne infections such as dysentery and parasites. The Project plans to install clean water and sanitation facilities in as many of the villages as possible, after consultation with the village leaders. Already work has begun on the technical and funding issues both in the UK and in Peru, to enable this to happen. An exciting development has been the recent appointment of community development staff in Iquitos with experience in water projects.
The Project works closely with the Peruvian Ministry of Health. The Ministry provide malaria and immunisation teams for each trip. Recently a midwife has also been seconded for the trips. Working together in this way allows the more inaccessible communities to benefit from better uptake of immunisations, better ante-natal care and better malaria control. Both infant mortality and maternal mortality are high in Peru so increasing the herd immunity and improving ante-natal care will help reduce these rates in the communities served by the Project. We have been greatly encouraged recently by the knowledge that one of the areas the Amazon Hope serves has seen a great improvement in immunisation rates, malaria control, antenatal care and child surveillance.
Visits to the local district hospitals in Iquitos have highlighted a great need for modern equipment, particularly in intensive care. The Vine Trust has been collecting ex- NHS equipment, which has been discarded in the continual upgrading programme that occurs in NHS hospitals. This equipment is checked by our volunteer technicians and stored in our factory unit ready for shipment to Iquitos this year.