APECA Perú started its activities with a floating clinic “El Trochero”, which visits different communities and distant villages along the Amazon river, delivering medical services and providing first aid supplies. When visiting these villages, speeches are given as well as education in health, nutrition, hygiene, natural medicine, and prevention of diseases such as cholera, dysentery, and parasitoses. Also, technicians who visit the villages perform tests to detect malaria and tuberculosis. In some villages, the technicians may interchange ideas with the MINSA technician, or the volunteer health promoter (who is a resident ad honorem). El Trochero visits around 30 communities 3 times a year, staying in each village an average of 5 days.
In addition to the floating clinic, APECA has several canoes or boats that visit all the villages more often, promoting and distributing “Cofres medicinales”, which are medical chests with essential medicines. The delivery and distribution of the medical chests are a distinctive symbol of integrity of its work in the region, since the design of the chests came from the community itself, the boards from which they are made of was cut from the trees that are part of the reforestation project, the inventory of drugs these chests have comes from the alliance with the government and distributors of drugs at low price. In addition, these medical chests reach several distant communities through Vigilantes en Salud who are people of the same community, trained by health professionals so that they could give orientation about the drugs, natural medicine and counseling in health. They move down the Amazon river in canoes on a voluntary basis.
APECA works closely with the government’s health strategies and supports the work of the Ministries of Health and Education with the delivery of services to distant places, which otherwise could not be reached by the Government. Thus, several campaigns have been conducted: Vaccination campaigns and General Health to immunize the community and prevent outbreaks; also Dental Campaigns of fluoridation in children at elementary schools, dental treatments and education in dental care; and Training campaigns to decrease the high incidences of neonatal tetanus are also conducted.
APECA’s activities are funded by personal contributions and donations as well as by organizations that support the work and mission APECA professes.
