One Year. One Physical Therapist in Trujillo, Peru.

Combining passions of global public health with travel and cultural immersion... With the help of the Catholic Medical Mission Board, I was afforded the opportunity to live outside of Trujillo, Peru for one year's time (2010-2011). Check out old posts about my experiences as a PT working in hospitals, a school, an outpatient clinic, doing research/community based rehabilitation, and a little teaching too. And my experiences with an entire calendar year of holidays, cultural customs and new culinary experiences!

I make it back about once a year with university students/CMMB projects, so I will periodically provide updates :)

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Photography Fundraiser!



Still looking for the perfect Mother's Day gift? Look no further...

Help support CMMB's efforts in Peru! I'm doing a fundraiser for CMMB's project "Rehabilitación con Esperanza" on Sunday, May 13th (Mother's Day!) - see information below. (If you don't live in SLC but are interested in seeing/ordering some of the prints, please let me know! Email: alaska.walker@gmail.com)


When: Sunday, May 13th, 2012
Where: St. Catherine of Siena Newman Center
            170 University Street, Salt Lake City, UT 84102
Hours: 8:30am-12:30pm and 7:00pm-9:00pm
The Goods: Photography - matted, framed and non-framed, and select images on canvas - a wide array of sizes and scenes ranging from Peru to Alaska, Southern Utah to Tuscany! Special thanks to photographer Fred Walker for his numerous beautiful donations!

About "Rehabilitación con Esperanza"
Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) began a new Community-Based Rehabilitation project in 2011 targeting a population with disabilities. “Rehabilitación con Esperanza” is a public health program in the district of La Esperanza, Trujillo, Perú with two main focus areas:
  • improving access to healthcare services, rehabilitation-trained community health workers, assistive devices, transportation, education, support groups, work, and recreation for persons with disabilities
  • improving access to continuing education resources for physical therapists 

The project currently has a population of 20 children with disabilities, and utilizes community agents and support groups to address the needs of caregivers as well. While the project is organized by CMMB, it relies mainly on funding via grants. Unfortunately the grant process has not yielded support yet, and the entire project is currently running by the big hearts of a few volunteers.

This community-based rehabilitation program is hoping to build on its’ sustainability and improve the quality of care received by participants by involving collaboration with international volunteers. This year, Regis University (Denver, CO) will be sending down physical therapy students and faculty to assist with this public health project and the hands-on training of community health agents, local physical therapists, and families/caregivers of the children. In addition, two physical therapists from the US will lead a 2-day continuing education conference in the training of rehabilitation for neurological conditions to 80 local physical therapists in Trujillo.

All donations received at the fundraiser will go toward the facilitation of the training/education sessions in August 2012 and supplies such as the rehabilitation equipment that each child in the project needs. Please stop by - learn more about CMMB - and support this great cause!

Muchisimas Gracias!