Team Peru 2011 - The End

Photo: A final photo shot of "El Misti" before leaving Arequipa

Photo: The Arequipa airport just before we take-off to end the trip

Photo: Arequipa is such a beautiful city, with the ChaChani moutain looming over the airport

After three weeks of planning, campaign, and debrief - the 2011 Team Peru Outreach Trip has officially come to an end.

Okay, not fully - as HBI's Director of Operations is still in Peru finishing up a couple of meetings in Lima and helping to inventory to the medications and supplies at the HBI warehouse. However, all of our team members are back home in the USA or off on exciting excursion trips in Peru.

It was a fantastic trip. We have so many exciting stories to share and new connections to promote. I will be writing a few updates in the coming weeks. Until then, thank you to everyone who has helped to make our summer 2011 outreach trip to Peru such an amazing success!

What do children do in your country?

Photo: Martin enthralling the boys

Photo: The MIMDES program is located in the back of a busy market

Photo: The entrance into the program

Photo: Singing a song in the hopes of getting an extra slice of cake

Photo: The children introducing themselves and telling us about their work

Photo: Our introductions and Q&A session

Photo: The sign that introduces the program at the front door

"Do children in your country work?"

We were invited to a street youth program this morning run by the Peruvian Ministry for Woman and Social Rights (MIMDES). The program is a prevention and education project for children who spend everyday with their parents working in the markets and on the streets of Arequipa. There are currently three geographic areas of operation - the three principle street markets in the city - with Saturday and Wednesday activities.

Staff (a psychologist by the name of Marcos and Martin and Mariam - both Social Workers) from MIMDES provide an environment and an opportunity "for children to be children." As Marcos told us, many of the children who spend their days working in the markets or on the streets side-by-side with their parents "lose their childhood." One of the programmatic goals of the program is to allow children the opportunity to play, laugh and engage in child-centric activities.

Today, during our visit, there was a cake, cookies and a small celebration; for what, we don't know, but it was fantastic to be there. We were treated as special guests and invited to play with the some 20 children gathered at the "party." To start our time together, Marcos invited the children to ask us questions or tell us a little about themselves. The children took full advantage of their opportunity and asked such marvelous questions as, "Why are you bald? Why are your eyes blue? What language do people speak where you are from?"

One-by-one they went around and told us their names and what they did for work: Kevin sells fish with his mother, Wilson sell clothing, Mary Luz sells chocolates, Jessica helps her mother to deliver water, Stephanie is a meat cutter. Children, some as young as 5-years old, work side-by-side with their parents to eke out a small wage. Many, not all, attend a small school that is open in the market area. Most, dream of something so much more.

At one point in our visit, a little girl asked Martin, "What do children do in your country?" He was uncertain how to respond. He told her that they went to school and that they played. She asked him if children in [our] country worked like she did. Martin later told me that he was uncertain how to respond to her question - for he did not want to offend her. He did not know how to tell her that children in the U.S. spend their days playing and watching television. He did know how to tell her that children are allowed to be . . . children.

As we were getting ready to leave, the children came up to say goodbye. One of the boys, having been fascinated with the pictures I had on my iPhone of Lee and Alex (my wife and daughter), said "please give my best to your family." Wow, here is a child who spends day after day working in an impoverished market for little to no pay to help support his family - and he sends his best for my family. I was floored.

We are not certain what next steps will unfold with our new partners at MIMDES - but we are certainly looking forward to helping to build bridges for their programs and the wonderful work they are doing for children living in such desperate circumstances.

Photos from the 2011 Team Peru Outreach Campaign

Photo: One of our fantastic Peruvian partners

Photo: HBI staff Alyssa and Ben

Photo: Dr. Bob and Carmen seeing patients in Girasoles

Photo: "Iron-lady" Augusta Shipsey teaching oral hygiene

Photo: A couple of our new friends

Photo: The quite before the storm on one of the first clinic days

Photo: Clinic in Ica

Photo: Some of our team during week one

Off they go

Today is the official "last day" of the 2011 Team Peru outreach trip. We have team members departing all day. Some are off to Cusco and the magnificent Machu Picchu and others are headed back to the states and reintegration into their busy lives.

The HBI team will be meeting with our Peruvian partners, debriefing the trip and repacking our warehouse in Arequipa and Lima over the next few days. One thing that everyone is fully in agreement about, this has been a fantastic trip.

A big thank you must go out to all of our team members and everyone who has helped to support this marvelous two weeks of outreach, bridge building and service.

Paz Holendasa Visit

Photo: Our team touring the new Paz Holendasa hospital

Photo: The beautiful ascetic appeal of the hospital

Photo: Arequipa has some 350 days of sunshine each year, an outdoor reception area makes sense and is really inviting to the children and their parents

Photo: As a pediatric hospital, Paz Holendasa keeps everything very whimsical

"If they don't work, they don't eat"

Father Alex asked Ben and I to film some of the activities around the Mission over the past couple of days. We were getting shots of the team integrating into the Mission's activities and taking general film of the various programs of the Church. Needed to get a few shots of the clinic, I asked Adon (Father Alex's right hand man) to drive me down for about ten minutes of filming.

After completing my assigned footage, I walked out to find Adon waiting by the van to drive me back up to the Mission's volunteer house. "Do you think it would be okay if we took this lady back to her house?" Adon said to me - pointing to a woman sitting in her wheelchair only about 3 meters away. So, Adon and I loaded her and her son into the back of the van and drove her to one of the poorest invasion communities in Alto Cayma - an area that sits in a canyon just off the runway of the airport.

The woman had been at the Mission for the monthly CFCA, Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, food distribution program and she had no money to take a taxi back home. When we got to her house, a small concrete block home with the aluminum sided roof, Adon began to tell me of their story. She is in her thirties and suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis. Unable to walk, she lives most of her days in a wheelchair. She has three children, a boy aged 10 and two girls aged 13 and 14. Her husband left the family almost two years ago. Her only source of income is to sell food on the side of the road for a few soles a day. Her oldest child has left school to work full time for the family. Adon told me that he is concerned that the other two children will be leaving school very soon as well.

On the drive back to the Mission Adon told me that he felt the lack of educational opportunities and the need for families to have their children go to work very early in their educational careers, is one of the main reasons that people in the community of Alto Cayma get "stuck" in poverty. He told me that there is a constant drain of young people leaving school with very few formal skills and little education - and this is devastating to the community. Adon went on to say that for many of the people living in the poorer communities of Alto Cayma - "if they don't work, they don't eat."

Alto Cayma - Our final day of activities

Today is our last full day of project activities. Dr. Bob has taken the team up to the Mission to get started on their morning activities (e.g. clinic, home visits, painting, food preparation and delivery and daycare). Ben and I are running around completing a few errands in the city. This afternoon we will be meeting with one of our partner NGOs in Arequipa and touring their new pediatric hospital.

Paz Holendasa is the brainchild of a nurse from Holland who came to Peru some 15-years ago and saw a great need for maxio-facial procedures for cleft palates. Working with her partners in the European Union, she pulled together a number of wonderful projects over the years. Culminating in the successful development and completion of a multi-specialty care pediatric hospital in Arequipa. It is an amazing facility with state of the art operative theaters and patient encounter areas. Most of all it is a gift to the people of Peru. A clinic and hospital where the highest quality healthcare services can be delivered to the poorest of the poor for minimal to no money.

We are taking the team to tour the Paz Holendasa facility to show them how much one person can accomplish with a focused dream and an unending passion. I will post pictures from our adventure this afternoon.

Through the Eyes of Child

Photo: The lovely children of the Alto Cayma Daycare

When Father Alex first came to Alto Cayma he was alarmed by the number of children that died from very preventable accidents. Children were being left in small 3-meter by 3-meter homes while their parents spent the entire day away in the city looking for work. Many times the children would, looking for water or something to drink, get into a noxious substance. Father said he found himself burying child after child and knew he had to find a solution.

The solution was to build a daycare center. Quickly his program grew - from a small room in a small house to a four room school with a playground, kitchen and complete bathroom (with stalls for bathing the children everyday). Today the daycare is a full fledged preschool, certified by the Peruvian Ministry of Education. There are five certified and fully credentialed teachers, daycare services from 7 am until 7 pm (to match the long work hours of the people living in Alto Cayma) and weekly medical and dental examinations. The school has over 100 children enrolled.

This morning I was very preoccupied with the amount of work I have on my "plate." I knew I needed to get on-line and un-burry myself from my hundreds of emails. Equally, my "To Do" list seems to be multiplying before my eyes. As luck would have it, the power was off at the Mission compound and I could not get on-line. As such, I decided to follow Ben (HBI's Director of Operations) as he did a bit of filming for a small documentary we are developing for Father Alex.

The minute we got into the daycare we were surrounded by children screaming "visitante," which means visitor in English. They swarmed us and enveloped us with hugs and kisses. For about 30-minutes we had a constant succession of kids coming up asking for hugs or wanting to hold our hands. I quickly began to realize that all of my preoccupation to work and my "To Do" list meant nothing when I looked into the eyes of these lovely children.

I began to realize how important it is for me to be fully present to the life of our little girl and how much impact that "presence" will have on her life. I realized once again that my greatest gift is not my ability to churn out email after email . . . but commitment to be a loving, compassionate person.

A Mellow Day with a Sobering Story

Photo: A quick nap in the mid-day sun for a hard working team

Today was a mellow day for our team. We had volunteers working in the clinic, a few team members helping to paint the main community kitchen, we sent a team on home visits with Maria the Social Worker and helped in the community kitchen to prepare meals for delivery to the poorest members of the Alto Cayma Community.

People were busy, but no where near the frenetic pace of week one. In fact, some of our team members even stole some time for a late afternoon nap.

Tonight at dinner, the team members who went out with Maria on home visits told a sobering story for all of us to hear. While walking back to the volunteer house from a home visit, the team was suddenly scurried off the road by a racing truck. Maria told them that the truck was the Peruvian National Police who were going to a home to remove a 4-year old girl from the care of her parents because it had been reported that she was being severely beaten. They went on to tell us that Maria described a harrowing rate of spousal violence in the area. A violence rate that was only slightly ahead of the violence faced by children in their homes.

Maria told them that many people are reticent to report the violence they experience in their homes because of the fear they have for corrupt police. Maria told the team that the greatest advocates the community have is the Church. Stating that Father Alex is often called to the homes of people experiencing severe violence because he is the only person they fully trust. She told them that many people have no one else in their lives they can turn to for support.

Tonight, as I sit in the lobby of our hotel - I am haunted by the thought of young lives under such pain and trauma. I am thankful for the strength that Father Alex brings to his work everyday. And most of all, I am hopeful that we can continue to work together to end the suffering of people living in such abject circumstances.

Peace Corps Peru

Photo: Peace Corps volunteers leading a "networking" breakfast.

This morning Ben and I went to a meeting convened by the Peace Corps volunteers in the Arequipa area. This is a once per month meeting that brings together the Peace Corps representatives from around the Province of Arequipa to discuss their programs and projects. The meeting also includes other NGOs and volunteer organizations working in the Province.

The goal of the meeting was simple: creating connections and opportunities for organizations to collaborate. This is a great opportunity for HBI to meet new organizations doing health related work in Arequipa and the Colca Valley. In fact, we are going to a event on Saturday with a small NGO working with street youth in one of the pueblos jovenes of the city.

Networking, bridge building, collaborating - this is what HBI is all about. We fully recognize that we are most powerful through our common and combined efforts.

"You came here"

Photo: A standing clinic

Photo: Ben's new friend

Photo: Girasoles at dusk

Our last clinic day in Ica was an amazing experience for everyone. Our team collectively decided that we needed to shift our clinic to the desperately impoverished area of Girasoles. This decision was one that would come back to serve us well.

HBI's Director of Operations is charged with the unforgiving job of saying no to the many extra people who show up for the clinics. Sometimes this task is made easy by the fact that our team can fit in a few extra patients or the fact that we are serving in a smaller community; but most of the time, his job is really difficult.

During clinic on Wednesday, Ben politely told a woman that we would be unable to see her and that she should come back the next day. She told Ben that her job made it impossible for her to get to the outreach clinic at 4 or 5 a.m. (as many of the people had to see us) and that she would only be able to get to see us after 6 p.m. He again, politely apologized and explained that all of our equipment and supplies had been packed up and we could just not see her. This is really hard on Ben.

On Thursday, in the sand and dust of the desperately impoverished area of Girasoles, Ben felt a tug on his shirt and turned to see his friend from the day before. He explained that she had a smile on her face from ear-to-ear and said to him with great glee, "you came here, you really came here to see us."

We saw her that night in the cold of the desert moonlight - and it was a great day indeed.

Day One in Arequipa

Photo: My "office" in Arequipa the first day

After a full day in Lima - sightseeing, visiting the Indian Market and touring our partner NGOs (OPRECE) facilities - we finally arrived in Arequipa late on Saturday night.

Sunday was a planned day of rest. Our team had the option of sightseeing in the beautiful "White City" or simply resting in their rooms. I, on the other hand, was forced into rest with a 24-hour illness that has kept me in bed until Monday morning. Alas, it is better to be sick on the rest day, than to be incapacitated during the activities portion of the team's week in Arequipa.

Today, we head up to the Mission of Alto Cayma. This morning will be an orientation and a time to discuss the difference between week one and week two of the Team Peru trip. In addition, we will be putting the team to work this afternoon with a variety of activities - from painting at the volunteer house to working in the Mission's "brick and mortar" health clinic.

This is going to be a great week. Stay tuned for updates.

On to Arequipa

Photo: The HBI Team's reception with the Mayor of Tinguina.

What a great day. We just finished our last day in Lima. A tour of the city, a visit to the Indian Market and a great afternoon team lunch.

This has been one long week. Our days have been non-stop from 6:30 a.m. until 11:30 p.m. The pace of the week has worn everyone out. We will be in for a whole new experience next week, when Father Alex challenges our team to focus on "being" and not just "doing."

At this point we have had team members head off to Cusco for tourism, back to the U.S. for re-integration, and down to Arequipa for continued outreach efforts. The time together has been fruitful and filled with learnings. Our goal is that all of the new HBI family members can take their new experiences back with them wherever they are.

Stay tuned to the HBI Blog for updates throughout this week. A special thanks to everyone for the support of HBI and the people of Peru.

A Complete Week

Photo: The HBI Team Peru 2011

"I think it was a really complete week of outreach," so were the words of HBI's Director of Operations as we drove north on the Pan American Highway to Lima following our last day of outreach in Ica. He is right. This has been a complete week. All and all, we have provided medical, dental, psychological, and optometric services to over 1,300 patients.

Our team members have taught at the local university (Alas Peruanas University)- where Dr. Al Turner provided physical therapy students instructions in manual medicine and osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT). In addition, Dr. Bob Gehringer (HBI's Medical Director) taught neonatal resuscitation program (NRP) classes to over 70 nurses and physicians in Ica area Ministry of Health clinics. Working in partnership with two Peruvian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) we provided HIV testing to over 300 patients - testing 4 people positive for HIV and helping to link them into care. Finally, working in partnership with the Peruvian NGO OPRECE, over 800 people were screened for cataracts and another 65 patients were found to be suitable candidates for surgical removal of their cataracts during a free Clinton Foundation sponsored campaign during the week of July 25.

It truly was a complete first week of the 2011 Team Peru outreach campaign. I am really proud of all the work our team has done and the amazing organization and logistics coordination HBI's Director of Operations has undertaken to put this great outreach project together.

Preferential Services for the Poor

Photo: Dr. Bob taking pediatric patients in his exam "room."

It happens in almost ever clinic outreach. The extremely poor are almost always pushed to the back of the lines. I don’t think it is an overt distinction on anyone’s part – I just think people living in extreme poverty are not very good at self-advocacy.

This week was no exception. We started with the expressed goal of reaching the poorest communities in and around the city of Ica. Sometime on Wednesday afternoon, we realized that the poorest of the poor were not getting seen. So, yesterday afternoon, we dramatically reconfigured our outreach plan to target our services to the poorest community – the community that brought us to Ica in the first place – the small pueblo jovenes of Girasoles.

Having spent the first part of the week working in partnership with the mayor’s offices of La Molina and Tinguina, we “broke off” on our own and took all of our supplies and the entire team out to Girasols. This was not an easy feet. In the communities of La Molina and Tinguina, the Mayor’s had helped to secure municipal locations or schools for us to use for our outreach sites. In the community of Girasoles, there is no concrete pitch or even flat area for us to set up tents – there is only sand and rock.

Make do, however, we did. We set-up clinic locations in some very unique areas - taking advantage of the shade offered by the bus that transported us out to the community, renting a small tarp covered clearing (we gave the owner of the area 10 liters of water in payment) for pediatric care, filling the seat of an old school bus for our pharmacy and borrowing the shade of a thatched home for triage and registration. In a little over 3-hours, after some very last minute planning, we pulled together a clinic in one of the poorest areas in Peru and served over 200 people.

This week has been an exceptional success. We have provided medical, dental, ophthalmological and psychological services to over 1,200 people. We have worked in 5 different communities and partnered with well over 50 Peruvian volunteers. This has been an amazing week of service. Perhaps we are most proud for our continual emphasis on seeking ways to serve the most underserved.

As the sun went down and our team finished the last of the pharmacy prescriptions, we collected around the school bus to help pack our supplies and head back to the Union Biblica camp. Slowly, but steadily, the Girasoles community came up to our team to thank us for our services. Slowly, but steadily, we all began to realize how important our day had been. At the end of our day - we all realized how important it is to ensure that there is a need to ensure preferential services delivery for the poor.

Day 2 at the Team Peru Clinic

We are in Ica and to say the campaign is going great is an understatement! During day one of our clinic outreach we served well over 300 patients and in day two we served another 300+ patients!

I am amazed at how excited people are for our new adventure in Ica . . . and I am not talking about the North American volunteers. The Union Biblica house "father" at the Casa Girasoles has mounted a veritable army of volunteers (physicians, nurses, dentists, general helpers) to help with the campaign.

This "army," along with our 40 Peruvian and North American Team Peru volunteers, brings our total number of staff at a clinic site each day to over 65 people. We truly have a "village" working in some of the poorest areas of Ica to bring medical, dental and social services. Talk about an exciting year. This year, we have more Peruvian's involved in the campaign than "gringo" volunteers. Peruvians helping Peruvians - this is awesome!

Tomorrow night I hope to have an Internet connection fast enough to post some photos from our campaign. Suffice it to say, there have been an endless stream of smiling faces on the part of our volunteers and the people we are serving.

Day One in Lima

Well, we arrived in Lima very late last night (no . . . make that very early this morning) and we have already hit the ground running. After a day filled with meetings, gathering supplies and a late night dinner with a congresswoman - our team is ready for bed. Oh, but not so fast.

Tonight is the first night of the next three that involve an ongoing parade of volunteers arriving in Lima. Ben has already headed to the airport to pick-up three volunteers. I am up next at 4:30 a.m. to retrieve another volunteer. All in all, we have over 20 volunteers arriving on various flights over next next two days.

All of the airport runs culminate very late on Saturday night when we pick up the last volunteer a little after 1 a.m. and head down the Pan-American highway for a 5-hour drive to the city of Ica.

Need-less-to-say, it is going to be really important to get as much sleep as possible between now and when the campaign officially starts on Sunday. This is going to be a great week and I am certain I will have a number of wonderful stories to post on the Blog. Stay tuned.

Count Down to 2011

Things are coming down to the wire as we finalize our packing, make certain all of the trip participants have the information they need to spend over two weeks in Peru, and get set for our flights. This years trip promises to be different on a number of levels.

A couple of big differences include: (1) We have a new location for our first week of outreach with Union Biblica; (2) We are going to a new outreach settlement with Father Alex in Arequipa; (3) And, we are taking a really big group with us.

"All and all this going to be a very interesting month . . . that is for sure," as aptly stated by my wife (Lee) as she prepares to sit-out the first Team Peru trip in over 17-years.

One thing is certain to remain the same - the passion that our volunteers bring to serving in Peru. We will be updating the Blog frequently on the trip and hope to share some of our adventures and our learnings.

Thank you for your continue support of HBI. Stay tuned . . .