Healthcare at Father Jack’s Mission

Doesn’t it warm your heart to receive a “get well soon” card from friends and family when you’ve been sick? Thankfully, because most of us have been blessed with access to clean water, nutritious food, and healthy living conditions, we don’t encounter illnesses very often. And, even when we are faced with major health issues, we know quality healthcare is readily available. Unfortunately, this is not the case for the poor living within the barrios of Father Jack’s mission.

Life expectancy is 10 years lower in Chimbote compared to Peru’s national average

For the poor in Chimbote, common ailments such as diarrhea, infected wounds and vaccine-preventable illnesses (tuberculosis, polio and others) can cause prolonged health issues and even death.

Answering the Call

Friends of Chimbote supports the Santa Ana medical and dental clinic for the poor where, if they can afford it, patients pay a small stipend for services. However, no one is turned away for lack of funds. A physical rehabilitation center at the mission is staffed by individuals who have been trained by professionals from the United States.

Friends of Chimbote supports the mission’s Matt Talbot Center–a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program–which offers counseling, housing, and hope for those who suffer the agonies of alcohol or drug abuse and are unable to pay for this service anywhere else.

South America’s Only Hospice Care

Friends of Chimbote is proud to support the first-known hospice program in South America, which offers both home visits and an inpatient facility to provide comfort and pain relief for those enduring terminal health problems.

Medical Partnerships

In addition to our own medical and dental clinic, Father Jack’s mission partners with the Santa Clara clinic, La Caleta Hospital and Chimbote’s Public Hospital to provide medical care, medications, treatments, and surgeries for the sick and injured. This includes a special program for the treatment and prevention of tuberculosis, which accounts for more than 200 clinic visits each month.

LAMA

We are also very fortunate to have the support and medical expertise of Los Amigos Medical Aid (LAMA). A group of more than 40 medical professionals—physicians, nurses, dentists, pharmacists, optometrists and support staff—from all over the United States and other countries volunteer their time and pay their own expenses to spend one week each year at the mission. They work side by side with Peruvian healthcare professionals to assess and treat hundreds of people both from within the barrios of the mission, as well as other impoverished areas in and around Chimbote.