Upcoming
EventsWHAT WE DO
Health
Health Problems
Health Services
Building Clinic
Health Problems
The Q’ero people rarely receive treatment for common ailments, which includes dental infections and caries, wounds and skin infections, parasites and digestive ailments, vaginal and uterine infections, complications of pregnancy and childbirth, and upper respiratory infections. An ill or injured person in the Q’ero territories would have to hike two or three days to receive free health care services. Common ailments can become quite serious and sometime lead to death. Infant mortality in the region is documented at 47 percent, mostly from upper respiratory infections and diarrhea.
All mountain villagers suffer intestinal parasites because their herds of llamas, alpacas, and sheep graze on native grasses and contaminate water drainages. A permanent health care facility could rid all villagers of parasites with a simple twice-yearly treatment.
Cooking on the floor with sticks and llama dung while inside huts that lack windows and chimneys, creates thick smoke. Smoke causes eye and lung problems for many villagers.
Isolated villages use crude rock pits for human waste. They need proper latrines for protection against numerous ailments.
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Health Services
Without a dedicated medical facility, HWF has been creative in delivering basic health care services to the Q’ero people. For several years, monthly day clinics were held in the open air with medical personnel traveling from Cusco to meet the villagers. In April of 2011, an international team treated almost 700 persons using a school a day’s walk from the Q’ero villages. During our annual trips to the remote communities, members of the board of directors give workshops about maternal health, childbirth, and hygiene. HWF has provided all families with childbirth kits, soap, electrolyte replacement powder, and training in family planning and treatment of diarrhea. Villagers appreciate these efforts very much, but we share their sense of urgency for more comprehensive health care that is necessary to relieve so much unnecessary suffering. Need: A clinic facility, basically equipped, to provide dental care and family medicine.
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Building a Clinic
The Q’ero people need health care services in a facility adapted for their culture and health challenges. HWF is in the process of searching for donors and partners to construct building with treatment rooms that are designed to provide dental care, family medicine, and workshops in hygiene and basic first aid. For more information about this project, or to discuss how you can assist, please contact Jim Van Meter 814.282.2326.
Elena's story is typical of many Q'ero women.
Elena, a documentary by Elizabeth Van Meter.
Together, we can build a clinic.
Heart Walk Foundation, a documentary by Elizabeth Van Meter.
