Rural Health Access and Education

Dear friends, 

I am writing to thank you for your continued support of rural health access and education in rural Peru. We are in the midst of some exciting and transformative changes in the program here.

As some of you may know, Awamaki started as a social enterprise working to create access to economic opportunities and sustainable tourism among the most marginalized populations of the Sacred Valley. The health program grew out of our volunteer program, thanks to the passion, ideas, energy and hard work of a number of volunteers we placed in the local health clinic between 2009 and 2011. Earlier this year, the health program - the work of which encompassed the medical clinic and health promotora projects described in this GlobalGiving project page - grew to a size in which Awamaki's staff and leadership decided it would do better if we were to spin it off as an independent organization. Awamaki is run by people passionate and experienced in social enterprise, fair trade products, sustainable tourism and global volunteerism. We are not, however, health professionals, and the needs of our growing health program were becoming more than we could readily meet.

As such, we are excited to announce to you the launching of Sacred Valley Health, our health-focused partner in community development in rural Peru. Sacred Valley Health is run by a capable team, including non-profit professionals and Peruvian and U.S. health professionals. In the last few months, Awamaki has been nurturing the organization to the point where now, we have decided to fully part ways, and wish our friends and partners the best as they complete the transition to an independent organization.

Donations to this project have gone to the rural health project as the organization made its transition. Sacred Valley Health has been busy launching its community health workers program, supporting the new municipal mobile clinic, amd building relationships with the Ministry of Health here in Peru. They have staff and volunteers working in seven communities, meeting with community leaders, recruiting women to be health promoters, and designing curriculum. Here in an excerpt from a recent blog post of theirs:

We are currently hard at work to complete the “community needs assessment” in all 7 pilot communities where Sacred Valley Health is launching a community health worker program.  This entails traveling to 7 unique (and quite rural) communities of predominantly Quechua-speaking people to obtain basic demographics and resident opinions on the general health of the town’s population.  Ideally we will design the curriculum for teaching our promotoras based on the survey results.  Thus far, the Oscar for most common illness/malady goes to… gripe.  Congrats to the common cold for making the life of the residents of Kelccanka, Yanamayo, Patacancha,Huilloc, Pampallacta, Piscaccucho, and T’astayoc more difficult than it already can be!

Your support has been essential during this time of start-up and transition. As you may have noted, I am now marking this project as fully funded. Some day, Sacred Valley Health may enter their own GlobalGiving Open Challenge and make a page on this site; if and when they decide to do so, I hope you will continue to support them through GlobalGiving! In the meantime, I encourage you to follow their work, and continue to offer your support to the organization as it grows and continues to improve the public health of the rural communities of the Sacred Valley. Their website is sacredvalleyhealth.wordpress.com.

Thank you for your committment to this project and to improving the lives and health of rural communities in Peru. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at kennedy@awamaki.org, or Sarah Fitzgerald at sftizgerald@sacredvalleyhealth.org.

Links:

• Sacred Valley Health website
• Sacred Valley Health Facebook!