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The building of Latin-America's third green clinic started in the small town of Yantalo, home of 3,000 people. Building the clinic was idea of the Vásquez family, founders of the Yantalo Foundation Peru, who put committed their time and effort to bring a positive change into the lives of the people of Yantalo.
Yantalo, in the middle of the Peruvian jungle, already has a governmental clinic open 4 hours a day, which is dependent heavily upon the personal schedule of the designated doctor. The clinic does not have a laboratory, there is no x-ray facility, and samples must be sent to Lima for evaluation.

Yantalo Foundation's ecological clinic will be offering its services 24 hours a day, analyzing samples in its own laboratories. "No one has to die of prostate cancer anymore," says Luis Vásquez, founder and President of the Yantalo Foundation Peru.

"Our molecular laboratory will be the first one in the country," boasts Luis Vásquez M.D., right after describing how the 16-bed intensive care unit will provide top of the line care. "We are building and furnishing it with the help of donations," explains Mr Vásquez. For example, a personal ophthalmologist donated his office supplies and the Foundation has strong links with universities, who will send physicians regularily, like a team from John Hopkins University.

Too beautiful to be true? "Our philosophy is not to send anyone away only because they cannot pay for our services, so we will subsidize the treatment of our poor customers with our income from those who can pay for our services," explains Mr Vásquez. His vision is ambitious: "I hope that in the future, wealthy people searching for the best and most modern health service will not go abroad, will not go to the USA, but will come to Yantalo."

Interview with Luis Vasquez M.D, founder and President of Yantalo Foundation Peru

When and why did you found Yantalo Foundation Peru?
I decided to found Yantalo Foundation Peru in 2005, which was the first time I went there. When I got there, I realized that nothing had changed in the last 100 years, from what my mother used to tell me. So, as a family, we decided to do something about it.



It is a very neat community, people there are very close together, so when we need help, like when we needed help to clean the area for the hospital, teachers, parents and students came with their machetes, and in one day, 4 acres were cleaned.

How many volunteers have visited Yantalo since 2005?
I divide our volunteers into 3 groups: medical volunteers, dental volunteers, and educators. In total, we receive around 52 physicians and nurses, about 8 or 10 in the dental area, and probably another 20 as educators, mainly art teachers. So, we are reaching close to 80 volunteers. They usually stay from 1 week to 6 months.

Right now there is a lady from Holland, who is staying for a month. And there is an architect from New York who is staying for 4 months. She is helping people improve their buildings, their roofs and so on. We get at least one or two people calling us every week. We get requests from all around the world, from Norway, Italy, France, or Spain. When I ask them, how did they find us, they would say that they were looking to volunteer somewhere and they found our webpage and decided to apply.

Why do you think people volunteer to work at Yantalo?
I think what is most important is their desire to share, and the good feeling that money is not everything. Because some people help with money and that is fine. But other people prefer to donate services or their time, and that has probably more value for the locals than money. To work together with people they might never again see in their lives, and help them in their daily works has a tremendous reciprocity value; it is an intimate feeling.



What are the achievements of Yantalo Peru you are most proud of?
I would say, the quality of our volunteers. We always check the background of our volunteers who do not yet have a degree. Most of the time, I have to say, they are quality people, but we always ask for their CV and for his license to practice – and that gives us a solid background. And we mainly select university professors, because this is an area where we need teachers. Some volunteers, not because they don't want to, but they do not care to teach. While a professor, it is his training; he sits down with you and tells you that this is the way to do this; that is the way to do that.

Students have to send us their CV and we ask them whether they have already volunteered at some place else outside the United States or in underdeveloped countries and if they can give us a couple of references of that experience which we can contact. In 4 years we have had only one failure, a disappointment, but that is life.

What was your most fulfilling experience working with Yantalo Peru?
Each day is a fulfilling experience! I think my most fulfilling experience is the fact that the community will improve its quality of life. It's not me who makes the changes, it's the community. When they get more educated, they will have better jobs and they will provide more money to the families; they will be able to make the changes themselves. We are just providing them with the tools.

And that's very fulfilling, because the last thing I want to do is to change the philosophy of the community. I think one of the reasons of our success is that we do not identify with any political or religious group. If a person needs help, he or she is going to get it.

What was the reaction of locals to your project and to your volunteers?
In the beginning they were very hesitant; they were saying “why are these foreigners coming here?” But with each day there is more acceptance of the volunteers. Now they are very welcome because the locals see that they are working together, and that they too have to work on the floor and get dirty! And many of them, I would say, are very wealthy people, and they may want to stay in the best rooms in Lima, but in Yantalo they don't care. And the locals feel that they are not being discriminated against because they are poor.

Our volunteers do not have to be professionals because one can help a tremendous amount transferring their knowledge of ordinary things, like the spouses of some of the doctors who come to help. They can make a difference as well. For example, one lady learned how to cook local food with wood. They don't have electricity or gas in their kitchens, because they don't want that, even though it is available. They still cut wood, because of tradition. There are many communities in this country, who don't want to change. The flavor is different too. You can tell if the food was cooked on wood, electricity or gas.

Another lady who taught the locals how to make an apple pie. Of course, there were no apples in the area, so they had to bring apples from another place. But she showed them how to do it, and now they can make pies from any other kind of fruit, not necessarily of apples.


tags : healthy environment village people communities volunteer Peru

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2 Comments

# Carlos Ignacio Rivadeneyra Gutierrez says :
18 November, 2009 [ 02:22 ]

Really it is a great experience the volounteers in Yantalo, I wish I coluld volounteer there as a proffessional in Public Health Veterinarian, showing the people the management of food to avoid the diseases transmitted by food, and also the way to manage foods before preparing them, practicing the Good Hygien Practices and also to take care of the environment where they work.

!!!!!! GREAT WORK !!!!!!!  CONGRATULATIONS

# Eulogio Sandoval Valles says :
14 August, 2010 [ 12:41 ]

xxx

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