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AUGUST 2006 NEWSLETTER

This month the volunteers:

organised some great lessons,
finished the floor in the kindergarten room,
conducted a fantastic dental program,
helped support our Emergency Health program,
assisted with the House Challenge visits,
celebrated Selvy's birthday,
helped start a new project in the Sacred Valley, and
enjoyed local festivals and horse riding in the ruins.

Classes of a different kind

This month we still planned and taught classes in English, art and sport which the kids continue to enjoy. But we also welcomed some new ideas for classes.

Arnold, one of our volunteers, planned and took a class with the noisy Grade 2's who enjoyed exploring different forms of communication.

Next, the Grade 5/6's were thrilled to examin coins from different countires, had fun with the number 9, prime and perfect numbers and loved the session on measurement including making personal height sticks.

Renata brought over a boomerang from Australia so we organised a bush-walk and taught the kids how to throw a boomerang – no llama’s were hurt.

This month is generally the windiest month in Cuzco, therefore it is an annual tradition that the kids all have to make kites in art classes and then fly them around outside. Almost every day during August the kids spent all of their spare time building and fixing up their kites to make them fly better.

Kindergarten room finished

The last touches of the kindergarten room were finally finished this month.

Our volunteers helped lay wooden beams to cover the old dirt floor.

This now means that all construction work on the classrooms has finished.

Over the last year we have completed six rooms at the school.

Peru’s Challenge Dental Project 2006

Over the last six months, Peru's Challenge has organised dental professionals from Cuzco to volunteer their time to visit the Pumamarca community. Each visit, the dentists give a demonstration to the kids on how to brush their teeth correctly and then conduct examinations. These visits then present the need for a lot of follow-up and preventative work.

This month, we were lucky to have Sheila from Australia volunteer with us for one month. Before coming Sheila and her husband Arnold explored the possibility of undertaking a dental project during their stay with us in August.

Following is a summary written by Sheila of the Peru’s Challenge Dental Project - August 2006.

This project started when Sheila read that the application of Fluoride varnish annually gave good protection against decay. The recommendation from local dentists was that twice annual application should be the aim.

After extensive internet searches and reading and with the help of family and friends eight 10mg tubes of Duroflor were purchased and training in its application given by Dr Phillipa Saunders.

GC Dental very kindly supplied nine tubes of Toothmouse and Drs David Rosenthal and Tim Heywood gave much advice, encouragement and additional dental supplies including applicators, masks and gloves.

The setting for the project was Pumamarca School in the region of Cusco - the school is in a small village and has been built up by the community supported by Peru’s Challenge, which was established in 2003 by Australian Jane Gavel and her Peruvian partner Selvy Ugaz. Volunteers live in a house in Larapa, a suburb of Cusco and undertake a wide range of projects with the students and families.

Local senior dental students Johan and Dych from Universidad Andina supported the project and gave an excellent puppet show to instruct the children in dental hygiene and explain what was happening.

At the first session all the students from years two to six had their teeth professionally cleaned, decay or orthodontic problems charted and Duroflor applied. The children already had a toothbrush each in the classroom and daily tooth cleaning is supervised - the school has one water tap but there is no running water in the homes and parents will rarely have had a toothbrush.

That was the easy day. In the last few months a “Mothers Group” has been established by the social worker and meets weekly in the late afternoon - mothers and children help the fathers in the fields in the afternoons.

The mothers had no toothbrushes, no running water at home and had never had any contact with dentists. So they were very apprehensive and about half acknowledged significant dental pain. From observation many had obvious decay, gum disease or gaps.

At the Mothers Group there were also about 15 or 20 early adolescents who no longer attend school. A presentation about the project and demonstration of the cleaning and application was made, but it still required considerable courage and encouragement for them to lie on the flat benches we used and open their mouths.

Darkness fell quite soon after we started and most of the work was done by torchlight! - surrounded by children of all ages and other mothers.

The following week all children in the school, all adolescents and all mothers were much happier to have the Toothmouse applied. Approximately 60 children attended for fluoride treatment and of these about half needed dental treatment - many urgent and several with very extensive orthodontic problems. Our dental friends hope to arrange treatment through the University Clinic but there is little prospect of orthodontic help for many.

A similar number of mothers and adolescents attended with about half having significant decay so all in all more than 100 members of the community have started on the road to improved dental health. It is anticipated the fathers will attend when the busy crop planting season ends.

All children and members of the Mothers Group now have toothbrushes and we hope the children will encourage the use of these in the homes.

A volunteer is currently being trained to repeat the application of Toothmouse at monthly intervals.

Johan and Dych have promised to re-apply the Fluoride varnish at six-monthly intervals - the project leaders and social worker will ensure this happens.

What of the future?

The children of Pumamarca school will continue to brush their teeth daily, Johan and Dych have committed to attend to review the kids and re-apply Fluoride varnish to them and to as many adults as can be enlisted.

Those children requiring dental work will be referred to the Universidad Andina Clinic. The Peru's Challenge social worker will continue to encourage the mothers in dental hygiene and to pass on the culture of caring for their teeth. It is hoped other adults in the Community will participate in this programme. Volunteers will continue the application of Toothmoose to adolescents and adults at monthly intervals.

Sufficient Duroflor has been left to treat the first children and mothers for three further applications and Toothmouse for several months. Hopefully sponsorship will allow both the children and parents of Pumamarca to have continuing applications of Fluoride and Toothmouse.

There are many to thank - dentist Drs Robyn Thompson, Phillipa Sawyer, David Rosenthall, Tim Hayward, our friends and family, Colgate Australia for toothbrushes and a very big thank you to GC Dental supply company for the provision of information about and supply of Toothmouse.

And all those at Peru's Challenge - Jane and Ginny, their social worker, volunteers Renata and Georgette, teachers at the school and our dental friends Johan and Dych.

Sheila Metcalf, August 2006

Emergency health issues continue

Once again this month, we have been focusing a lot of our efforts on emergency health issues. Not only have we been assisting the grandmother who had her leg amputated (see June newsletter for details), we have also been helping one of the mothers from the Pumamarca community, Maria.

Over the last ten months we have been paying her medical and travel bills in Lima. Maria had breast cancer and because there is no chemotherapy treatment facilities in Cuzco.

Maria has had to travel via a 22 hours bus ride to and from Lima every two weeks for treatment. After the chemotherapy she felt so awful but then imagine having to travel 22 hours to return home on a windy and uncomfortable bus. She often had to get the driver to stop so she could vomit and go to the toilet. She would arrive back in Cuzco exhausted and emotionally drained, only to have to look after her three kids and sick mother who has chronic arthritis and cannot get out of bed.

Peru’s Challenge decided to pay for the one hour flight back from Lima after each of her treatments. This sped up her recovery time and we were pleased to hear this month that she has been given the ‘all clear’ and went into remission. She will continue to travel to Lima for regular check-up. We will keep you posted on her recovery.

This month, we continued to assist the grandmother and talk with her family about her future care. Please read my updates on her case.

Date: 9 August, 2006
After nine days of intensive treatment in a great clinic in Cuzco the grandmother is now sitting up, talking, eating, and giving orders to her family (give me another pillow, turn me over, where's my food?)

It is a remarkable recovery considering the state she was in when we got her to the clinic.

So far her wounds and the hole in her back have not been operated on as her blood pressure is too low but her bed-sores have been cleaned out three times a day for the past seven days - 80cm of puss was extracted from one sore alone.

Cost for treatment has reached US$3000. Thanks to some immediate and very generous donations, we have been able to cover these costs.

On Tuesday, our social worker organised for her to be transferred to another clinic that is funded by a Spanish organisation. Here, the clinic assesses the living standards of their patients and then subsidises treatment costs up to 80%.

We are yet to hear what our grandmother will get but it will be a great help as on-going operations, cleaning of wounds and general care (6 months at least) cannot be covered by Peru's Challenge. We have many other community members that need our assistance.

Now it is up to us to ensure that her family visits her all the time and helps pay for the on-going treatments. It is very unlikely that the family will be able to pay for the on-going treatment even if it is subsidised as they spent all of their funds on her initial hospital visit when she got her leg amputated. Peru's Challenge will have to assist with funds where necessary.

Date: 12 August, 2006
We have been speaking with the family of the grandmother and the doctors at the new clinic for the last couple of days as to what are the next steps for the grandmother. The clinic is willing to subsidise 80% of her medical expenses.

Peru’s Challenge has stepped back in the decision process as the family needs to make this decision with advice from the doctors.

The family has no funds to cover additional expenses for cleaning and dressing her wounds and the large amount of antibiotics and pain killers that she will need for at least the next four to six months.

The doctors also believe that she more than likely will never fully recover. Therefore together they have decided to make the grandmother as comfortable as possible and let her pass away in peace.

Date: 24 August, 2006
Sadly today, the grandmother died. Peru’s Challenge is helping to cover the cost of her funeral expenses.

The family came to thank us for all of our assistance. They were so thankful that we were able to help them get her out of the terrible condition she was in so that she was not in pain and enjoyed time with her family before she passed away.

And of course we were thanked with the customary invitation to eat cuy (guinea pig), potatoes and corn – how could we refuse!

We are still in the process of setting up an Emergency Health Fund to cover problems like those mentioned above. The calendars are well on their way and should be available for sale next month for US$10 each.

House Challenge program continues to make a difference

Twice a week our volunteers join our social worker on random house visits within the Pumamarca community as a show of support for the families.

All the great work we do at the school gives the kids access to education, health, food, clothes, attention, love and fun. When they return home after school finishes, their life is the complete opposite.

We understand that to improve the quality of life of the kids, we have to work with the parents so that they too can work towards improving their lives and those of their children.

The ways in which we help range from providing a bed with sheets, blankets and pillows to paying for emergency medical assistance such as chemotherapy, blood tests and medicines.

Our social worker is also a trained counselor and organises sessions for victims of domestic violence and alcoholism. Volunteers also help to renovate houses by building a toilet, digging a drain or fixing a leaking roof.

The House Challenge program is supported by the Volunteer Program so we are limited to how much we can do each month. We also do not move on to help another family until we have made a good effort to help the family that we are currently dealing with. This ensures that we are not giving false hope to each family by promising we will help and then not coming back to visit for any length of time.

This month we have been focusing on a family of five children. One of the daughters has a physical and mental disability. She cannot talk and only communicates by screaming in short, loud bursts. She often wets her pants and always wets her bed. As a result, her parents have put her in a metal home-made cot with no mattress. There is only one other bed in their house so the six other family members all sleep together.

She is unruly and often hits her younger brothers as she is copying her father. She also has left-side paralysis so cannot straighten her arm and hand without assistance. If she wants to pick something up she will use her teeth.

Her disability is affecting the whole family. The house is a mess. There is feces and rubbish all over the front yard where they keep their two bulls which the kids play in. The husband is violent and often abuses his wife. The older sister has lost her childhood as she has been put in charge of looking after her sister.

The mother does not want her daughter to go to the Pumamarca school as all of the kids call her “la chica loca” the crazy girl. Our social worker also does not yet want her to go to the school as she is afraid she will hit the other children.

How can we help this family? The first thing we had to do was to try and make the situation with their daughter manageable. Georgette and Sheila, two of our current volunteers have done a great job this month in working with the daughter. Firstly, they took her down to a clinic that assists children with special needs and asked her to be reviewed by a physiotherapist, and speech therapist.

Next, with help from our social worker, we developed communication cards – laminated cards that stick to a small whiteboard which we donated to the family. Each card has a picture on it that symbolises a need which she and the family members must use when trying to communicate. For example, a picture of a plate of food means that she needs/wants to eat; a picture of a toilet symbolises that she wants to go to the toilet.

The family has started to use the cards with her but we are yet to see any progress. An update will be given in the next newsletter.

Selvy’s Birthday celebrations

On the 16th we celebrated Selvy’s birthday. We started off with a dinner up at the volunteer house with all the volunteers and Selvy’s friends. Santusa cooked some amazing food – roast pork and turkey which everyone enjoyed.

Next, we moved into town to a friends bar and had a live band play some great music. Everyone had a great time including Selvy who we couldn’t get off the dance floor!

Up at the school the kids all organised birthday cards and sang him happy birthday. The mothers also organised a surprise party for him with a big cake and lots of presents including a scarf with the Peruvian flag woven in.

Another project started in the Sacred Valley

Every year, we also assist a company in Australia that sends groups of school-leavers out to Peru for three months at a time. They have to stay with a local family and teach English to primary students at a designated school in the area.

Peru’s Challenge chooses the project based on our local knowledge of which schools desperately need assistance.

This year we decided to add a little extra to the program by asking the students to also take physical education classes and build much needed toilets at the school.

The first group of ten arrived in May and did a great job teaching. They also made a great start on the toilet block. Each of them worked side-by-side with the fathers of the school kids, learning how to mix cement and lay bricks.

Here is what one of the group members said about her experience:
I loved the three months I spent in Urubamba. My family was beautiful, the school was great, and I loved my group of volunteers sooo much. We all became the best of friends, and when it was time to leave I cried for days! - Meredith Krania, April ’06.

This month, the second group took over and has already settled in well.

Santusa’s son festival

Every month there is always some type of festival, parade or celebration but this month our volunteers enjoyed a very special parade.

Santusa who looks after our volunteer houses invited everyone to watch her son participate in a traditional parade in Cuzco.

Here, students from a number of local school dress up in traditional costumes from different regions of Peru and dance in the streets and the main plaza.

It was hard to spot Josue in amongst all of the colour but once spotted his dimpled smile is pretty hard to miss!

The volunteers took lots of photos and Josue felt like a celebrity!

Horse riding in the ruins above Cuzco

Each month our new volunteers also enjoy a full-day horse riding tour to the ruins above Cuzco.

Not everyone likes to ride horses but they are so quite that it is hard to get them into a trot unless you have Selvy slapping your horse on the bum to get it going!

This month, the volunteers enjoyed a great day and saw some of the great ruins including Sacsayhuaman and its big puma paw in the stones.