Huamachuco, Peru ???

One of the medical students who attends our Institute, Joe Gorz, is in charge of a MSU sponsored Medical Mission to Huamachuco, Peru. The participants, all 2nd year medical students from MSU, are arriving in Peru today. While there they will provide free medical care to approximately 1,500 local residents! Huamachuco is a rural area located high in the Andes mountains, where approximately 60% of the local population has no regular access to medical care of any kind.

Last March Joe approached us (as representatives of the church) about possibly helping out with translation services while the students were providing medical care. The locals speak a certain dialect that requires pretty good language skills, and it had occurred to him that if we had local missionaries in that area perhaps they would be able to help out. Treatment is very slow if Dr/patient communication is very slow (not to mention inaccurate)and good translators can increase the turnaround - and therefore the number of residents served - by about fivefold!

With the permission of our mission president and our CES Director, I contacted the president of the Peru Mission, President Terry Turk. He was very helpful in making arrangements with some of their local missionaries to help out with serving as translators during this MSU Medical Mission. This is all going on this week and next, so I am hopeful that everything works out as planned.

Truly we are a world-wide church, with a strong interest in serving others. Our reach is very long when it comes to humanitarian service. I'm really grateful to those on our end as well as in Peru who are participating in such a worthwhile endeavor.