Results
In the past 10 years, the Rio Beni Health Foundation (FSRB) has accomplished the following:
•Through mobile clinics, the Project has provided effective regular medical attention to nearly 8000 inhabitants in 80 rural communities located within the municipalities of Rurrenabaque, Reyes, Ixiamas, Santa Rosa, San Buenaventura and San Borja, traveling by river and dirt roads. The outreach attention is carried out through travel four times a week, and regular overnight stays in communities, where community meetings and health education talks are held in the evenings.
• In the central clinic in the town of Rurrenabaque, an estimated 20,000 people have been attended to during the three days a week it is open.
•50 community health workers have been trained from 30 communities through three years of regular courses. These ‘health promoters’ live in their respective communities and gradually take over increasing responsibility for the health needs.
•A potable water component of the FSRB was initiated in 2007 with various training courses carried out for the team, health promoters and community members. Since then nearly 10 training sessions have been held in the communities and at the central clinic, and over 200 filters have been constructed in 11 communities, and families in towns Rurrenabaque and San Borja, providing clean water to an estimated 2000 people.
•Formal agreements have been signed and implemented with the Municipalities of Rurrenabaque, San Buenaventura, Ixiamas, Reyes and San Borja, establishing open channels of communication and ongoing collaboration.
•Formal agreements of cooperation have been signed with the Hospitals in Rurrenabaque, San Buenaventura and Reyes in order for our patients, especially from the rural areas, to receive surgery, hospitalization or laboratory services at a reduced cost.
•During three regional floods in the area, the Mayor’s office channeled the majority of emergency relief and health efforts through the Foundation, where the staff coordinated the distribution of services and material to the displaced population in collaboration with the local Hospitals, the Red Cross and the Navy Base.
•Coordination of the team’s outreach work calendar with local health officials and health practitioners so they have the opportunity to extend their services to the outreach areas.
•Over 30 pre-med students, medical students, medical professionals and other volunteers of different professions from around the world have worked alongside the Bolivian team, deepening their knowledge of tropical medicine and community development, while at the same time offering hands-on support to the team for the work being carried out.
•Logistical support and ongoing cooperation has been provided by PAHO and the Ministry of Health.
•The San Andres Medical School’s Faculty Pharmaceutical Sciences and Bio-Chemistry, located in the capital La Paz, has asked FSRB to be its partner in a socio-health study of the different indigenous groups living in the Rio Beni region.
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