Eleven nursing students from the University of Navarra, cooperating in Peru
The students taught a school health program, health care and training of local promoters in the city of Chiclayo.
Eleven nursing students from the University of Navarra have spent a month this summer as cooperants in the Peruvian city of Chiclayo, in the northwest of the country.
The future nurses had as goal to teach a program of school health, health care and training of local promoters in a area where there is a great degradation partner-sanitary and high fees of maternal and infant mortality.
Before their trip, they received several sessions at training about the country and the main needs of its population. For Sonsoles Martín, a nurse from the Clínica Universidad de NavarraThe talks were useful to get to know the people we were going to work with, the most important diseases, their terminology and different customs, although it is impossible to imagine the reality in which they live until you are there".
During her stay there, the tragedy of the four Spanish aid workers who died in the Andean country in a traffic accident occurred. Sonsoles recalls that the first cell phone to ring to inform them of what had happened was hers: "As soon as the news arrived, our parents called us. It was something that really shocked us. It could have happened to anyone. Peru has very bad communications and drives out of control. Despite that, we didn't see any accidents in the month we spent there".
Another of the volunteers, Ana Barricarte, emphasizes the welcome they received: "It was unbeatable. The people there are very hospitable and grateful, even though they have almost nothing material to share".
Back to Aldeas Infantiles
Sonsoles Martín points out that the first two weeks they worked in a hospital and a health center, which helped them "to get a feel for the reality of health workers who work with hardly any resources". The following two weeks they collaborated in a Caritas project preparing future "health promoters" and worked in other projects such as Aldeas Infantiles, where they would like to return next year: "There we could help with the Education of parents, children, families, provide health and nutritional support, since the children do not even have the amount of milk they would need".
The eleven volunteers were Lucía Rodríguez de Blas, Mercedes Luco Chapa, Leyre Satrústegui Ollaquindia, Olatz Alkorta Martín, Carla Lasuen Mínguez, María Pilar Iglesias Pérez, Izaskun Elustondo Oyarbide, Irune Alvarez Arregui, Verónica Soto Martínez, Rebeca Salinas Bazán and Ana Barricarte Barasoain. Three nurses from Clínica Universidad de Navarra, Sandra Tricas -school teacher-, and Purificación Díez -the academic administrative assistant - traveled with them. The academic center already developed in Peru a similar project of Education and health care in the years 97 and 98. Every summer, they also encourage students to participate in volunteer activities and financial aid social activities, which in previous years have taken them to Mexico and Portugal.