Search and Rescue in the Highlands

Today Dante is a 7th grader at Casa Chapi in Arequipa.

Dante and Siomera’s mother takes them to the eye clinic.

Siomera’s face was unforgettable. Quechua Benefit volunteers Dick Miller and Jim Gallagher first saw her as they boarded a bus on their 2014 trip to Lari, Peru. Siomera stood barefoot in a plain dress by the adobe hut she shared with her parents and eleven siblings. Her tangled hair framed her angelic face. That picture was engraved in their minds.

Using just a snapshot, the Quechua Benefit team searched for Siomera for two years. Upon finding her, they tested and treated the family for parasites and anemia. Casa Chapi offered to enroll the children in school, but their mother Yola hesitated. After a visit from the local priest, Siomera’s parents allowed her older brother Dante to attend Casa Chapi.

Dante arrived at Casa Chapi quiet and shy. His crossed eyes made him avoid people’s gazes and hindered his learning. A surgery could correct his vision, but the thought of surgery worried his parents.

After some time to think about it his parents consented, and Dante had surgery at PAZ-Holandeza Clinic in Arequipa. The whole family is very happy with the results, especially Dante. He’s talkative and happy, and with a smile on his face he returned to Casa Chapi. He was anxious for everyone to see him.

Dante’s vision was improved along with his view of himself. He can now achieve his fullest potential. Dante and his parents say, “Thank you!” for your generous gifts to help them.

Siomera now attends Casa Chapi, too. She is in second grade, learning and growing thanks to your generosity. This little angel brought help and hope to her whole family.

And it all began with a few volunteers who were willing to go the extra mile to rescue a little girl in the highlands of Peru.
Your generous contributions to Quechua Benefit bring hope and healing to many families like Dante’s and Siomera’s.

It takes many people with a variety of skills to make Quechua Benefit’s programs in Peru successful. We greatly appreciate our volunteers who use their skills and expertise to help us fulfill our mission of Breaking the Cycle of Poverty among the Quechua people.

Debra Parcheta, the founder and CEO of Blue Marble Enterprises in Aurora, Colorado, is someone who gives of herself and her skills in a way that makes a lasting impact. She recently volunteered in Peru with our anemia campaign in Picotani.

Debra designed the database that Quechua Benefit uses to collect and store data for our anemia prevention campaigns. In the last two years we have collected 160,000 data points on more than 15,000 people. This information will help us make lasting changes with our preventative medicine campaigns.

In Debra’s words: “I learned a lot about the complexity of the serious anemia problem while in Peru and the database will be modified to assist the Quechua team with recording treatments and also recording the delivery of education to the populations being served.  Education is a critical component for the high country communities. This database . . . could begin to produce some compelling reports about the disease and its treatment in Peru.”

Debra didn’t spend all her time with data on her trip. She enjoyed meeting kids and parents, and they loved getting to know her and see her technology. Debra stands 6’1” tall, and the kids thought she was a giant standing in the room with a 6’5” ceiling!

Thank you, Debra for your efforts to help the Quechua people thrive.

Just like Debra, you can use your skills and expertise to make a lasting impact with Quechua Benefit.

Click here to see opportunities for volunteering.

 

 

 

 

Quechua Benefit has initiated partnerships with local and regional agencies because together we can accomplish more. In April members of the Quechua Benefit team met with officials with a proposal to combat anemia in the remote areas of the highlands of Peru . Everyone agreed that the problem is severe (nearly 49% of women and preschool children are anemic), and joining forces will lead to a healthier generation.

Good health is the beginning of breaking the cycle of poverty.

Strategic partners from local and regional agencies join with Quechua Benefit to combat anemia in the Colca Valley. Left to right: Regional Minister of Education, Regional Minister of Health, MIDIS representative, Alejandro Tejeda and Dale Cantwell from Quechua Benefit, Mayors from Yanque, Chivay, and Ichupampa, Padre Marcos, Mike Safley, Ministry of Health representative, and Regional Mayor of Caylloma.

These government agencies agree that the devastating consequences of anemia must be stopped. They agree to partner with Quechua Benefit to serve the Quechua people in the highlands–remote areas that often forgotten. Quechua Benefit manages the anemia prevention programs.

Our donors and partners are providing financial assistance in the form of medical supplies, medical staff, community compliance.

Our partners provide 57% of the costs for anemia prevention. Together, we are striving to reduce anemia from its current level of 49% of the population to less than 20% by 2021.

Thank you for your help in creating a healthy generation. Children no longer have to suffer the cognitive and developmental disabilities caused by anemia because

when we work together we accomplish more.

In January 2019, the Wall Street Journal published Bill Gates’ article, “The Best Investment I’ve Ever Made.” Gates believes that certain types of nonprofits are the best investments in all the world. He and Melinda have invested $10 billion into such charities. These charities are not sexy, and even though few people have heard of them, the return on their investment is the highest value play you can make. Especially when you compare it to stocks and bonds. Quechua Benefit is a mini version of the nonprofits Bill describes. Here is Bill’s case in his own words:

  • I’ve always assumed that 10% of my technology investments will succeed—and succeed wildly.
  • Change Discovering a new vaccine, I figured, would be just as hard as discovering the next tech unicorn. (Vaccines are much harder, it turns out.)
  • One type of investment has surprised me. . . . It’s what people in the global-health business call “financing and delivery.” Decades ago, these investments weren’t sure bets, but today, they almost always pay off in a big way.

Bill describes exactly what Quechua Benefit’s anemia prevention campaigns do day in and day out. We organize mass distribution of iron deficiency anemia therapy to the remote highlands of Peru.

Gates continues, “When Melinda and I began investing in these funds back in 2000, our goal was to save lives and stop suffering, and by that measure these institutions have succeeded beyond our wildest dreams. But they’ve also been successful in the way that investments traditionally are: They’ve created a lot of wealth, because when people aren’t sick in bed, they can go to work or school.”

Quechua Benefit has a unique strength. We efficiently manage mass delivery of essential services over a vast geographic area to remote communities. The indigenous population in our service area is 1,308,665.

Anemia is the world’s second leading cause of disability, behind only malaria. Anemia has a proven, simple and cost-effective cure. The first step is to treat its primary root cause in Peru: intestinal parasites that devour 25% of the nutrition consumed by their host, cause internal bleeding, fatigue, anemia, and malnutrition. The second step is to administer an inexpensive iron deficiency therapy.

Here’s what the experts say:

Between birth and 5 years of age an anemic child’s brain only develops in size to 75% of its potential.

The typical IQ of a child afflicted by anemia is 10 points less than his unafflicted peer.

In 2016, Quechua Benefit’s first anemia prevention campaign treated 1,000 children for parasites and cured 60% of the anemic children.

From 2016–­2018 Quechua Benefit has treated 15,439 women and children.

When you generously invest your hard-earned money in Quechua Benefit, we can change the world for thousands, even millions of people. Will you join us to wipe out anemia among the Quechua people? With your support, we will.

Peru is the South American country that suffers most from the world’s second most debilitating disease: anemia. With your support, Quechua Benefit has undertaken a major campaign to treat all 38 communities in the Colca Valley for parasites two times a year and cure 60-70% of all pregnant mothers and children through the 12th grade diagnosed with anemia. Our goal is to reduce the overall level of anemia in the community to below 19%.

Anemia is primarily a women’s and children’s issue.

It is present in 54.7% of pregnant highland women, and
49%of children under 6 years of age

Iron deficiency anemia can causes fatigue, weakness, shortness of breath with exertion, headaches, confusion, and even loss of appetite (especially in children). The silent consequence of anemia in children is the lack of cognitive development–it can actually cause their brain to be up to 25% smaller than an unafflicted peer!

Simple, cost-effective treatment can change the future for the women and children who receive it. For $80.00 you can provide treatment for 10 children for a year. Click here to join our campaign against anemia.

2019 ANEMIA TREATMENT SCHEDULE BY DISTRICT

March 25-29              San Antonio de Chuca

April 1-10                    Callilli

April 23-27                 Cabanaconde

April 29-30                Picotani

May 6-14                    Caylloma

May 20-29                 Chivay

 

We asked some of our medical volunteers and translators why they choose to volunteer with Quechua Benefit. Here’s what they had to say.