Quarterly Newsletter Peru Article
Travis Kumph
I hope you're feeling better! I just wanted to get you a draft of my Slice of Life article for the upcoming quarterly newsletter. Please feel free to edit, correct, change, etc. Mike, if you would like to add anything from your experience please feel free. Let me know if anyone has any questions. Thanks and talk soon!
Trav
This past summer, FNE partnered with Ohio’s Case Western Reserve University and New York’s Stony Brook Medical school to run a mobile medical clinic from June 4th 2012 through July 20th 2012 in the Sacred Valley Region of Peru. The teams stayed at La Quinta hotel in Urubamba, Peru (about 2 hours from Cusco) and over two months, visited and served dozens of communities throughout the area. The project provided general healthcare to thousands with the help of medical students, attendings, and physicians. Each day the group traveled to a new community where they would set up shop providing care to children and adults that included taking an in depth medical history, triage, a pharmacy, physical therapy, patient education, eye care, and general hygiene. The majority of patients served presented with chronic back pain, vision problems, intestinal bacteria, and/or malnutrition. In addition to the clinic, SB was able to coordinate and successfully complete 50 cataract surgeries, working hand in hand with a local NGO and local physicians. The project also partnered with TOMS shoes and was able to disburse close to 3,000 pairs of shoes.
FNE’s role consisted mainly of logistics coordination such as transportation, room and board, community relations and communication, and day to day needs. FNE has been working behind the scenes since early last summer and Mike Cipoletti and Travis Kumph spent several weeks in country this year working to ensure that the project ran smoothly and that the medical professionals could focus solely on providing the highest level quality of care to as many people as possible. The project was considered a major success and FNE as well as CWRU and SB are looking forward to improving and growing the project in coming years. Plan are already underway for next summer’s trip with a renewed focus on sustainability, community empowerment, and teamwork.
The Sacred Valley Region of Peru is one of the most beautiful and popular tourist locations in the world with nearly half a million tourists arriving each year to visit Machu Picchu and see for themselves, a place rich in history and culture. Those lucky enough to participate in this year’s medical project not only enjoyed the wonder and awe of such a place, but also had the privilege of serving and knowing many of the people who call it home.
