Saturday, October 30, 2010

CARE III - The Colca Valley

We are headed to Peru next week to conduct our third research and community survey project with the University of North Carolina-Wilmington School of Nursing and Community Health and Dr. Kae Livsey.

Our project will be conducted in the high Andean region of the Colca Valley. We are partnering with the Portland based NGO Quechua Benefit to help define the health care access and utilization of a number of communities that rim the Colca Valley (one of the deepest and most beautiful canyons in the world - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colca_Canyon).

In addition to health care access and utilization questions, we will be seeking information on general socio-demographics and data on water access, employment and general lifestyle needs.

Our goal with this project is to create a statistically sound "picture" of the needs of the people living in the rural communities of the Colca Valley so that we can help to direct appropriate care mechanisms and resources. Equally, we are hoping that our research (once published) will have an influence on policy makers and government officials. Few studies have been conducted in the the rural communities of Latin American on health care access and utilization. If policy makers are going to truly use the resources they have at their discretion to meet the needs of their communities - they must have good, sound data to make those decisions.

Not too many politicians read dry community health research, but once the data reach the "public airwaves" it has the potential to create resounding levels of influence. As the saying goes - a bell once rung can never be un-rung.

You can follow our progress in the Colca Valley on this Blog - look for nightly updates on our progress. And, as always - thank you for all of your continued support.