Improving Health For Peruvians

Since 2004, Pathfinder has worked in direct partnership with USAID to improve the quality of health services available in Peru, support health sector reforms, and promote healthy behaviors among individuals and communities. The project works at the local level by upgrading services in Peru’s most isolated regions, and at the national level by accrediting and recertifying medical institutions and professionals to ensure national standards of care. Improving Health in Isolated Regions The project’s community-based efforts focus on seven regions of Peru — Ayachucho, Junin, San Martin, Huanuco, Ucayali, Cusco, and Pasco — which span both the Andean highlands and the remote Amazon basin. In these areas, populations are dispersed and health centers are often precarious and isolated and lack the necessary staff, equipment, and supplies to serve all clients. Project activities include: * Improving the quality of facility-based care by training doctors, nurses, and midwives in reproductive health service delivery, including emergency obstetric care. This training has enabled providers to prevent maternal deaths in some of Peru’s most remote areas; and * Collaborating with local municipalities and schools to promote the adoption of healthy behaviors, encourage community involvement in projects to improve local living conditions, and develop curriculum to respond to the health needs of the education community.

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Contributor: Anuradha Bhattacharjee
Published Date: March 24, 2008