April In The Amazon With AidJoy

The Forward

As many of you know I really enjoy telling a story, and I spend hours and hours on the phone bringing people up to speed on what is new over at AidJoy. Sitting down and writing on the other hand seams to consistently get trumped by the daily fires that flair up.

The stories we have been piecing together over the last few weeks simply cannot get pushed aside for project management or thank you notes.

Intro

Why have we returned to the Amazon?

We are here to tell you about how extraordinarily difficult it is to get medical care in remote areas in the Amazon rainforest.

Once we illustrate this truth we will introduce you to a group of individuals that have been working to counteract this medical crisis since 1994.

How can we allow you to see through our eyes?

We are setting out to show you the people and the area they call home in the form of audio recordings, still images, small video cameras we wear as we work, and traditional videography. With all of this story telling equipment you’ll be able to gain an appreciation for the journey one must take when they need emergency medical care.

What has been accomplished in April?

We’ve been interviewing patients and medical staff in medical facilities and their homes within a several hundred-mile radius of Iquitos Peru.

Getting access to interview these people has been possible through our relationships with the former minister of health in the Loreto Region of Peru and the NGO Project Amazonas. That trust has been earned over 2.5 years of collaboration.

People’s open doors and hearts

I cannot emphasize to you enough how forthcoming patients and medical staff has been. We start off conversations with a brief introduction of who we are and what we aim to accomplish. From that point people begin to share a story of one of the saddest points in their life. We have seen time and again people do everything in their power to equip us with what we believe can help them in the years to come.

Actions of desperation

* To allow us to photograph their daughter’s bottom that is horrifically burned is an act of desperation.
* To tell us about being carried on a hammock for hours while your newborn remains connected to you by an umbilical cord is an act of desperation.
* A father that volunteers to loose a weeks pay, that he can ill afford, to talk with us next week is an act of desperation.

What’s coming?

Over the next week or so I will walk you through several of the stories we have been deeply effected by.

In the next blog entry you’ll learn about Marilu’s pregnancy while she had malaria.

* Without the support of http://www.foreigntranslations.com and generous individual donors this work would not be possible.

Huge Hug,
Jonathan

Recording Jakelina’s Story About Her Placenta Stuck Inside Her Uterus

Interviewing The Medical Technician Marques Casara Grandes At A Remote Amazon Clinic

A Quick Conversation Before Talking With The Technician At The Village of San Francisco (in Peru not USA :-))