DB PERU

APRIL 2008

This year has already been a busy one for our jungle work and our involvement in many special projects.  Lots of exciting activities have taken place and we would like to share some of them with you.  We want to extend a special thank you to our donors, because without you, most of this work couldn’t take place.  We are making a difference in the lives of so many individuals and of the daily lives of communities.

This is an unusually long newsletter, so I have headed topics in bold if you wish to scroll down to particular items.

ONE BIG MILESTONE

December 31, 2007 represented the fifth year with our tax-exempt status.  We filed in January for the continuation of the 501c3 status and received our letter from the IRS indicating that we would continue as a tax-exempt charitable organization.  I don’t know how difficult it is to receive the IRS approval, but I am happy to make the IRS happy.

OUR 2 JUNGLE TRIPS – MARCH AND APRIL

We made our routine 2-week trip to the jungle in March and an extra shorter trip in April.  Because the rivers were high, we were able to visit more villages than in any previous trip – 28 in all.  (In low water some villages are inaccessible by water, requiring hikes of 30-60 minutes by land).  We delivered medicines to 21 villages, which represent to total of 3,500 people.  We are currently buying our medicines from the Minister of Health in Peru, and more specifically, Iquitos, the jungle city.  Because we have maintained our Peruvian status as an ONG (NGO), we learned last year that we are able to buy from the government.  It does require some reporting activity, but the savings have been considerable and our continuing problems with Customs is making it next to impossible to bring in medicine and supplies from the United States.

A brief word about Customs:  Even though the President (Peru) made campaign promises to improve Customs, if nothing else, things have gotten worse.  We are presently trying to directly donate 2 shipments in Customs to the Minister of Health.  One has been there more than a year, and another shipment was 2 wonderful boxes of medicines and supplies for the earthquake victims from Heart to Heart International (www.hearttoheart.org) – sitting since August.  Even direct donation is not easy, getting to the right people and completing the right paperwork to make it happen.  But the good news is that with persistence on our part, it will probably happen soon, and the Minister of Health will send our boxes to the designated places where we originally wanted to donate. 

But sadly I am limiting what I bring from the US, although many people would like to donate collected items.  Now I do it on a case by case basis.

We spent $1100 on medicines for the 21 villages.  I want to share some examples of pricing so you will know how far the money goes:

Albendazol is used for parasites, which is a common problem in this area.  Two tablets are needed for treatment and each tablet is less than 3 cents, making the treatment about 5 ½ cents a person.  We were able to deliver treatment for all 3,500 people for about $192.

Ciprofloxin is a good antibiotic which we bought for about 5 cents a tablet, making treatment between 70 cents and a $1.00, depending on the problem.

Other antibiotics, Doxycycline is about 2 cents a tablet and Amoxicillin and Sulfa about 3 cents.

Ibuprofen and Tylenol are about 1 cent a piece.

We delivered:

Antibiotics - tablets, suspensions, eye drops and creams

Rehydration solution packets

Antifungal creams

Anti-parasite tablets and suspensions

Ibuprofen and Tylenol (paracetamol/acetaminophen) - tablets and suspensions

In total about 20,000 items - tablets, bottles of suspensions, etc, which should last these 21 villages about 4-5 months.   In addition, due to the donations of medical supplies, we were able to leave dressings, tape, supplies, etc in each village.

A special donation of medicine from Dr. Luigi Ghiglino and his wife Tricia in Lima was given to the clinic in Orellana.

We took the opportunity on the March trip to update our needs assessment list, which included who has what communication tools, radios, telephones, etc.  We also got the current population of each village which will help us in our planning.  There will be a group of 3 students from the University of Colorado collecting data on the Napo River during the months of June-August. We have extended a welcome to them to their university and will share information from our own data base to get them started.  Recently we made our own map of the area since I have never seen a map that included all the villages that are tucked in and about the river and inland (we will put our new map on the website soon).  The students are intending to do satellite GPS plotting for the villages on the rivers, so hopefully our map will be helpful to them.  We look forward to hearing their findings.

As we visited each village, we were able to follow-up with patients that we had seen on our last visit.  I have started keeping a log of patients we have seen to help with follow-up and keep tabs on potential problems.  We will be sharing any information of consequence with the staff at the clinics to further bring some continuity of care to them.

We also continue to distribute reading glasses on our trips.

SPECIAL PATIENTS

Most people had done well since our last visit, but I would like to share a few stories about particular people:

Antonio, 68 – Parkinson’s disease – we had taken him to the Ana Stahl private clinic in Iquitos last fall and he received medication for the first time.  We left enough money with him to return for his follow-up visit in a month, which he kept.  The medicine helped him and he was quite excited, but he ran out of medicine and his symptoms returned.  So on our visit in March we sent 5 months supply of medicine to him by river boat, and in April, when we returned to his village, he proudly came walking up to me to show me his outstretched hands – which were not shaking.  His medicine, Sulconar 250mg, is about $21 a month.

Jessica, 5 – This is a little Yagua Indian girl who has a terrible skin condition on her lower legs, and no where else on her body.  The legs and feet have open, weeping sores, with heavy, dry cracked skin surrounding them.  After being alerted to this girl’s problems last fall, we hiked the 45 minutes through the jungle to get to her.  The doctors cleaned the legs, applied antibiotic ointment and dressed them.  The instructions were to keep those legs very clean and use the ointment. 

When we once again hiked back in March, the legs were not much better.  This time I took photos and sent them to Dr. Linnea Smith, who has the clinic Yanamono on the Amazon River.  She said that she had seen this before, but mostly in areas with very poor sanitation – which this Yagua village qualified for.  She recommended a nifty little cream, one that I am not aware of in US, but it is a combo of antibiotics, cortisone, and antifungal medicine in one tube, as well as for her to take vitamins.  So I bought these in Lima and we took them to the child in April.  We will continue to follow her as much as the village will allow.  Our interactions with the Yagua Indians have been strained over the years.  They do know us and allow us to visit, but they keep to themselves and would definitely not be considered friendly by our terms.  However their culture is quite different and it is not their nature to chit-chat, and some don’t speak Spanish so communication is more difficult.  

Maribel, 37 – This young woman had been told that she had heart problems by 4 different doctors, so we wanted to check with her.  We found her 7 months pregnant, so decided to transport her to Iquitos.  She was checked by the doctor, who said she was doing OK with her pregnancy - we still do not know the exact nature of the heart problems.   But when we saw her again in April, she had been going to the clinic in Orellana, about an hour by boat, every week for her pregnancy check-ups.  That pleased me since her delivery could bring on problems.  She intends to go there for delivery, rather than use a midwife in the village.

Susana, 56 – We were given a history of 5 days vaginal bleeding with diarrhea for her.  This was not terribly impressive to me, but the family was worried about her, so we paid for her transport to the clinic in Mazan, one of larger communities.  When we arrived the next day, she was no better and they had started an IV.  They kept her several days in the clinic, and she eventually went to Iquitos after we left.

When we returned in April, we were told she had died the previous day.  This shocking news uncovered a more in-depth history of problems for years and her diagnosis was cancer.   After she left the hospital in Iquitos, her family was taking her to a shaman and she died on the way.  The disturbing fact to me was that we did not know of her over the past few years.  We had held clinics in her village many times with doctors from both the US and Peru.

Julio – an older gentleman with 3-inch spines from a plant in his legs, which were getting infected and he couldn’t walk.  We paid for his transport to Mazan, where they handily removed the spines in one piece and he was beaming and very pleased to have them out.

Galareta, 11 – fever, suspect malaria.  His transport to Mazan revealed dengue fever, and not malaria.  He was a sick cookie, but doing fine now.

EDUCATIONAL CLASSES

Our trip also gave us the opportunity to follow-up with the midwives who attended our last 2-day class.  Happily, every midwife that we talked to had normal deliveries and the babies were all fine.  The odds are that this pattern would not continue, but it was nice to know this information.  As we had hoped, the networking of the midwives in our class allowed for births to be attended by midwives from other villages.  This may be one of the most important outcomes from the classes, as some of the midwives have tremendous experience, more than 25 years, and other midwives are brand new.  The sharing and communicating knowledge on an ongoing basis will do more for the education of the new ones than just attending classes.  We have recently received a grant of $1400 from a church in Michigan for our next midwife class in September.  Due to the generous grant, we hope to be inviting midwives from 30 villages.  We also have had a recent donation from Norva Achenbaugh in Naples for books especially written for lay midwives, which we will distribute at the class.  

We will also do classes for the lay health workers (promotores) during the same September trip. 

Dental classes are planned for a subsequent trip, and a dentist, Dr. Meyer in Naples, FL, donated 1000 tablets designed to stain areas missed by brushing to aid in teaching about proper brushing techniques.  Pam Probst in Chicago has started a toothbrush campaign for the classes.

RADIO PROJECT

This project has taken off in a new direction – a good direction.  We found out that the Municipalities of Mazán and of Amazonas (Orellana) both have a plan to install radios in villages on the Napo River.  We met with the mayor of Mazán and were told they were installing in the 5 villages with the little clinics (puestas).  We were not able to meet with the mayor of Amazonas due to time constraints, but when we determine what their plan is for radio placement, we will then install the 2 radios, antennas, solar panels and batteries that we currently have in the most appropriate and strategic villages.  Our target would be our July trip. 

The reason that this has taken on new direction is that there will be 2 boats purchased for the clinic in Mazán to be used as emergency transport boats.  So when a village calls them on the radio with an emergency, they will dispatch a boat to either treat the patient or transport back to the clinic or city.  This fact makes every single radio that we have installed more important than ever and gives access to timely care and treatment.  We will be promoting this project more as we find out how many and where the radios from the municipalities will go.

John Waymire accompanied us once again to check our radios in the villages.  He made a trip up the Napo River before we arrived and found a radio not working.  He took it back to Iquitos and paid for the repairs himself, which allowed us to bring the repaired radio back to be installed. 

AMAZON WOMEN’S SEWING PROJECT

This has been a delightful project.  Last year we received a grant of $600 from Miracles In Action (www.miraclesinaction.org) to purchase some sewing machines for the Orellana sewing classes.  There were 20 students and no sewing machines on which to learn.  Volunteer Donna Tish became interested and decided to raise enough money so that every woman would have their own machine.  Through the donations of 22 people, she raised another $2,600.    We purchased 20 Singer sewing machines with cabinets, which were both pedal and electric.  These were to be delivered in December, but due to shipping problems, the machines arrived to Orellana in March. 

Donna accompanied us on the March trip to personally donate them.  We were joined by 2 city officials from Orellana.  I was quite touched to hear one of the officials make an eloquent speech about how DB Peru had worked quietly in their area for many years, without a lot of fanfare, helping the people and supporting the clinic.  Frankly sometimes I would wonder if anyone noticed, since there is high turnover of staff at the clinic and in the municipal offices.  But yes, they did know of our work and were now constructing a special building for the sewing machines and the school.  This was a pleasant surprise for us.  The plan is that every woman who completes the 3-year program will be able to keep their machine, and if they do not finish, the machine will stay with the program for another woman.  There is $258 left in this fund, which will probably be used for repairs or replacements.

And one word (or a few) to mention getting 20 sewing machines from downtown Lima:

The 35 boxes were trucked from the store downtown to the Lima airport for shipping to Iquitos.  They sat in storage for 3 months, and then were trucked from the storage in Iquitos to the port on the Amazon River, where porters carried them to the big river boat.  From there they went down the Amazon River 12 hours and were delivered to the port at Orellana, then carried by porters to the storage area.  I guess to me it is a little amazing that all 35 boxes arrived safe and sound – but they did.

EARTHQUAKE RELIEF

We have made 4 trips to the earthquake-damaged area south of Lima in Chincha and Pisco since August.  In addition to food and supplies, we have delivered medical equipment to the smaller clinics in the area.  Since other organizations are working on rebuilding the communities, we will be concentrating on the needs of the health care facilities and will make another trip this month to outlying clinics to deliver more equipment.   One of our jungle volunteers, Sally, worked with the Hands On group while she was in Peru last October.

CARITAS FELICES GIRLS’ HOME

This has become one of our biggest special projects – the building of a 4-room school on the property of the sexually abused girls’ home outside of Lima.  This has been made possible through the vision and donations from Gary Bowie and Ward Pace from Nashville, TN.  The school is nearing completion, although it had been expected to be completed earlier.  It is looking quite good, and we will now be working on getting the school certified by the Minister of Education so Sister Rita can apply for a government teacher(s), and offer schooling to the poor girls from the neighboring community.  The goal will be also offer computer and English classes as well for the girls.  We are currently looking for anyone wishing to donate for the purchase of computers and desks. 

Recently delays have been caused by a fire in the administrative home part of the compound, destroying many donations of clothing and supplies, and our contractor came to the rescue by diverting his time from the school to help.  Several women representing the Airline Ambassadors charity (www.airlineamb.org) have raised more than $2,300 toward the repairs, and several other individuals gave on their own.  One 5th grade teacher, Michelle Carlson from New Hampshire, raised $535 with her class project called Fifth Grade Kindness Mission.  Along with the check were 53 handwritten cards, made out of construction paper, written in Spanish by the children.  Each one has a picture of the child who wrote it and all were standing in the snow in their snowsuits.  We will be delivering these cards to the girls at the home – although the girls may not know what that “white” stuff is that the children are standing in.

This money will not only help repair the damages, but help correct already faulty and overloaded wiring, with the addition of extra electrical boxes and new wiring where needed.

Other problems involve a broken water pump and a leak in the ceiling, which our contractor also is helping with.  The recent influx of 11 more girls has brought the total up to 64, which is taxing the resources.  Other groups are responding with the help of needed school uniforms and supplies, and we will be giving the good Sister some administrative support so she can care for the girls.  In addition, Peg Meyer and I will be writing for a grant to assist them with addition psychological and counseling services. 

BABY ROLDAN

We have been working with the family of Baby Roldan from the jungle for almost a year and a half.  He is the little boy, now 2 ½ years old who needs heart surgery – probably at least three surgeries over his young life.  Without belaboring our efforts, we have transported his mother and him to Iquitos on every one of our trips to have him reevaluated (we brought him to Lima for a month last year).  In March we finally found a sympathetic doctor who knew the system and we finally got a commitment for surgery.  The family did not keep the last appointment after we returned to Lima, so when we made our trip in April, we decided to check in and see what happened.  They told us that the father’s ID had expired and were embarrassed to tell us.  They also told us that they still wanted the surgery, so once again we transported them back with us to Iquitos (we got the ID renewed). 

The new doctor was wonderful and gave Renzo his personal phone number, so every day for a week the family went to the hospital for further workups and insurance paperwork.  Renzo was in touch with the family and doctor daily from here in Lima.  We made airplane reservations and on the night before they flew, the family called Renzo and said they were not coming and would return to the jungle.  We don’t know what happened – maybe someone scared them.  Ultimately it is their decision.  However I am closing this project and have contacted the particular donors to their decisions about the remaining money in the fund.  We will continue to look in on the family, but will not spend more money.  And yes, it is discouraging.

CIUDAD DE LOS NIÑOS BOYS’ HOME

This automotive repair shop project was funded by Miracles In Action for the boys at this home to learn how to repair cars.  The equipment is bought and the shop set up.  We have been patiently (impatiently) waiting for the change of leadership at the home in order to proceed with the process of inspection and certification from the Minister of Education.  We want the boys to be able to receive a proper license when they graduate so they can get a job.  We are now actively meeting with a Catholic group called the Salicianos in Lima, who have a very nice repair shop already in place and have offered to help us through the certification process.

NORMA LOUISE STAINSBY SCHOLARSHIP MEMORIAL FUND

We proudly have our first two scholarship students in place and they will start school May 5.  Our trip to Iquitos in April was focused on finding our first student to get ready for this school year in the nurse technician program – técnica enfermera – at the school, Reyna de Las Americas.  We met first with the Director of the school, Dolly, who was just delightful.  She was so impressed by our program for the young people from the jungle that she said if we brought her one student, she would match the scholarship with one from the school (tuition, not expenses). 

So we took off to the jungle in search of 2 students – and in 2 days, we found 2 very good candidates, Lindaura from San Alejandro, and Irma from Mangua.  Both are 19 years old, not married and no children, and had graduated from secondary school.  We transported them and one parent each to Iquitos, got them registered, uniforms bought, found housing, bought simple furniture, arranged for food and transportation and personal money – all in one day.  It felt like a day and a half.  But they are very excited and they have supportive families, so we are quite optimistic.  This is our first experience with a scholarship program so hope we have thought of the most important points.  We have anticipated that students from the jungle will not have financial support of any kind from their families, which is certainly the case with these two girls. 

Our costs will be:

$150 per month per girl for 10 months a year for transportation, food and personal

$322 every 6 months for one girl for tuition

Renzo had a discussion with each girl and her parent about not getting pregnant (not something you could do in US) and that we will expect that they will give back to the program upon graduation by doing health care in the jungle for a period of time.  A técnico can work independently in a government clinic or on the staff of a regular clinic or hospital.  Their role is mostly technical, such as giving medicines, starting IVs and suturing. 

NEW DIRECTORS AND ADVISORS FOR YEAR 2008

We are quite pleased to announce our new directors and advisors for the year 2008.

Last year, our board consisted of:

Diana Bowie, President - Lima

Renzo Peña, Vice President - Lima

Nancy Deemer, Secretary/Treasurer - Fort Myers, FL

Norva Achenbaugh, Director – Naples, FL

This year we have added:

Peg Meyer, Director – Grapevine, TX

Cindi Anderson, Director – Scottsdale, AR

Gerald Bowie, Director - Jacksonville, FL

Deb Zulawski, Director – Seattle, WA

Our new advisory board consists of:

Linnea Smith, MD – Medical Advisor – Yanamono, Peru (she has acted in this capacity for many years)

Katie Seitz, MD – Medical Advisor – Denver, CO

Donald Stainsby, MD – Medical Advisor – Enid, OK

Archie Boster, Attorney at Law – Legal Advisor – Days Creek, OR / Lima, Peru

The Rev. Ralph G. Ranney – Ethics Advisor – Oklahoma City, OK

Raul Pettit – Advisor for Native Affairs – Iquitos, Peru

Patrick Burns, CPA, has been our accountant for many years – Orlando, FL

In addition, we have a student intern from France, Emilie Faye, who will be with me for 5 months (May-Sept).  She will be getting university credit for her work in international charitable organizations.  We have a full agenda for her and one of our first items will be to revamp the web site, which she is helping put in French and Spanish.  We have lots of information and new photos to post and will keep you advised as to when it is updated.  Currently it is www.dbperuong.com.  She will also be working at the girls’ home, Caritas Felices 2 days a week to help out administratively.

CENTURA HEALTH SYSTEM

This health system from Colorado has started sending teams of doctors and health care workers to the Napo River, which is quite exciting for us.  We have had many discussions and look forward to working together when possible on medical trips or special projects.  One thing that we have started on an informal basis is sharing information about people in the villages with healthcare problems. They have been following up on patients that we are concerned about, and hopefully we can do the same for them.  I will be initiating an informal record on patients seen by doctors to be kept with the health promoter in each village to allow for follow-up and continuity from different practitioners – more of a communication tool than a record.

They also have provided medical/surgical evaluation for a few of our patients from visiting doctors from US on a medical mission to the Iquitos clinic Ana Stahl.  Hopefully later this year we will work with this group to perform the needed 11 cataract surgeries.

PUBLICITY AND DONATIONS

We are a busy, but still small organization.  We would ask that if any of you have ideas about help with publicity about our work, sharing them would be much appreciated.  Through publicity and telling others, we sometimes make contacts that will lead to donations and interest in volunteering.  We will be posting particular needs or ideas for focused giving on our website and other websites dedicated to raising funds for non-profit groups.  I would always be happy to do a presentation when I am visiting the US.

We welcome any donations to help defray the cost of our trips, medicines and supplies, as well as ongoing costs of the paperwork of maintaining an organization.  All of the work of the organization is done by volunteers, including Renzo and me.  Neither he nor I receive a salary. 

All donations can be sent to:

DB Peru

822 Neuse Ave.

Fort Myers, FL 33913

Some of our donors have set up monthly withdrawals from their checking or VISA/Mastercard accounts for DB Peru.  If that would be an option for you, please contact me by email.

We presently respond to both emails:  dblady@aol.com and dbperuong@aol.com.

Again, we want to thank you for your support – whether it is through money, volunteering or a word of encouragement – all is appreciated greatly.  I hope I convey with my words how much of an impact our work makes in the lives of the people we reach with your help and giving.

Diana Bowie, President

Renzo Peña, Vice President