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The Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children is pleased to announce volunteer opportunities at our sites in Peru!

We are currently recruiting groups to travel for short-term medical mission trips of one week or more.

Peru’s medical facilities are critically understaffed and underfunded, and many medical establishments struggle to provide even basic medical care to the people they serve. The hospitals are overburdened with patients, many of whom have illnesses preventable by basic hygiene and healthy living practices. The doctors in these hospitals lack the time and resources to teach each patient how to live a healthy life. The central goal of FIMRC’s Peru program is to provide staff support to Peru’s Ministry of Health both in medical facilities and within the community. Volunteers will at once witness the problem (a severely underserved population) and attempts at a solution (Peru's socialized medical system).

To work toward these goals, volunteers will:
• Assist doctors in the examination room, help with patient intake by recording vital signs for each patient and visit homes in the community with nurses.
• Run interactive health education workshops in local schools and orphanages. This includes showing children how to brush their teeth, explaining the importance of hygiene and washing hands and demonstrating the treatment of minor cuts. Students will also work with the parents to ensure safe and hygienic water treatment and cooking practices.
• Participate in cultural activities pertinent to the project location. Some groups will meet with a local shaman to learn about traditional Andean medicine. Others will tour important natural and cultural locations of interest. Part of the goal of this project is for the student to form a connection with local sites and populations.

As a volunteer to FIMRC’s Project Peru, you will form connections to the community through education of basic health maintenance. You may, for example, coordinate a charla (an informal discussion among community members) with young women regarding safe prenatal care or with schoolchildren discussing dental hygiene. Through these efforts you can help alleviate the burden on local medical facilities by reducing the number of sick patients they must attend to.

In addition to interacting with members of the community, you will work alongside physicians and nurses who are familiar with the medical situation in Peru. We hope that with these personal connections you can help improve the local medical situation both by volunteering in the clinics and by raising awareness at home. FIMRC is hopeful that after this introduction to medicine in Peru, you will be part of a long-term solution.

Our enriching volunteer program is open to volunteers of all ages and educational or professional backgrounds. The medically focused nature of our programs makes us especially appealing to medical students and professionals, but non-medical volunteers will find a wealth of opportunities to make a difference! We have hosted everyone from college students taking an alternative spring break to medical specialists with decades of experience.

The costs of a one-week volunteer mission are as follows:
Program donation: $599 per person
Accommodations (includes housing and meals with a local family): $199 per person
In-country transportation (includes all transportation between airport, cities, and volunteering sites): $229 per person

Volunteers are responsible for purchasing their own airfare.

Our program in Peru is ideal for groups of 4-40 seeking to do a volunteer mission together. If you are interested in volunteering as an individual, please contact us and we will do our best to place you with an upcoming group. If you are ready to find out more about FIMRC’s project in Peru, or about our programs in El Salvador, Haiti, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, India, or Uganda, please visit our website at www.fimrc.org and fill out our information request form. If you would like to speak to one of our team members, please contact VP of Volunteer Programs Sara Schoenleber at missions@fimrc.org or 1.888.211.8575. We look forward to hearing from you!