Help PIH Respond to Flooding Disaster in Peru

Thank you for your generous support of Partners In Health's work in Peru. We're pleased to share with you some of the transformative health care and social support we've continued to provide to vulnerable communities in Carabayllo, north of Lima. 

Project CASITA is a program that identifies Carabayllo children ages 6 months to 24 months at risk of developmental delays and trains caretakers in activities that encourage age-appropriate behavior. Carabayllo’s extreme poverty means families often face tough choices and live under constant stress. Malnutrition, domestic violence, teen pregnancy, and chronic illness are among their many daily challenges. PIH found, for example, that at least 70 percent of women enrolled in the CASITA pilot program suffered some form of depression or stress, often related to spousal abuse. Such environments are toxic for children who, like sponges, soak up and internalize household tension.

Those families who qualify for CASITA are invited to attend three months of group sessions, hosted in community centers or any one of nine health posts or clinics throughout the district. Community health workers run the sessions and divvy up activities so that caregivers practice skills related to their children’s specific developmental delays.

Activities are both fun and focused. To hone fine motor skills, families make a game of picking up lentils from the floor (pictured above). To strengthen tiny abs and backs, they sit supported while grabbing for toys just out of reach. And to practice speech, they read books and repeat words together.

Beyond group sessions, PIH provides support to families through food baskets, mental health services, and assistance in applying for national identification cards, which give them access to a range of services—including subsidized health care—provided by the government.

Among the 180 families enrolled from 2013 to 2016 in PIH’s pilot program, called Proyecto CASITA, 85 percent of children at risk for developmental delays showed marked improvement.

Links:

• CASITA Program Helps At-Risk Children Excel in Peru

Three months have passed since devastating floods and mudslides swept Peru’s coastline and communities north of the capital of Lima, killing 113 people and destroying the homes of an estimated 700,000 people.

The powerful rainy season storms, sparked by an El Niño in the neighboring Pacific Ocean, cut power and access to clean drinking water in the region. Roads and bridges crumbled, leaving remote farming villages isolated for days.

Volunteers and staff from Socios En Salud, as Partners In Health is known locally, responded immediately to the disaster. Every day for a month since the flooding began, 50 medical brigades over the past month pushed throughout the Carabayllo District, PIH’s headquarters north of Lima, and beyond to deliver emergency aid and medication to more than 3,200 people, distribute 500-plus baskets of food, and tend to the mental health needs of nearly 200 patients.

It was all possible because of your generous support -- on behalf of our staff and patients in Peru, thank you!