Machu Picchu, Cusco, Sacred Valley Disaster Relief

Peru's healthcare system is badly broken. Peru’s per capita fatalities from COVID are the highest in the world driven by a multitude of factors that will take years, if not decades, to fix. The struggle is even more pronounced in the Andean regions impacted by past natural disasters. VIDA’s work in these regions and with this vulnerable population living there has been growing over the decades.

Peru has been unable to effectively prevent and care for the nation’s most vulnerable due to its low number of ICU beds per capita, history of low investment in healthcare, and a severe shortage of medical professionals. ICU capacity is limited due to the number of beds but even more so by the small number of doctors and nurses who have this level of expertise. All of these issues raise the need to help build the healthcare infrastructure. To that end, VIDA made 24 shipments in 2020, 28 shipments in 2021 and 15 shipments thus far in 2022. Shipments contains ICU hospital beds, stretchers, exam tables along with hundreds of walkers and thousands of crutches as well as thousands of boxes of medical supplies including PPE and respiratory equipment and supplies to combat the virus. We are very fortunate to have recently received 34 hospital beds and 5 birthing beds donated by Kaiser that will be leaving for this project shortly in June 2022.

A major cost in this project is the ocean freight from Oakland to Callao. The additional  inland freight cost from Callao to the Andes make these types of shipments very expensive and difficult. We are planning three more shipments before years end! GlobalGiving donors play an important role in making these shipments possible. We hope you can join us in our mission to bring aid to Peru’s most vulnerable communities.