AMAZON JUNGLE PROGRAM

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0><tr> <td valign="top" colspan=2 height=110 BGCOLOR="#666699" TEXT="#080000" bgproperties="fixed" background="04900840erlcjm.gif"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#FFFFFF" FACE="Arial" ><B>PROGRAMMA DELLA SELVA AMAZONICA</B></FONT><B>     |     </B><A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PROGRAMMA DELLA SELVA AMAZONICA"><U><B>home</B></U></A></div> <div> <A HREF="id21.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PROGRAMA DE LA SELVA AMAZÓNICA"><U>PROGRAMA DE LA SELVA AMAZÓNICA</U></A>   |   <A HREF="id22.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="PROGRAMMA DELLA SELVA AMAZONICA"><U>PROGRAMMA DELLA SELVA AMAZONICA</U></A>   |   <B>AMAZON JUNGLE PROGRAM </B></div> <div> </div> </td> </tr><tr> <td valign="top" width=190 BGCOLOR="#CCCCFF" TEXT="#080000" background="04311c00egdysm.gif"> <div> <B><IMG SRC="092b0040.jpg" border=0 width="176" height="260" ALIGN="BOTTOM" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></B></div> </td> <td valign="top" height=370 BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#080000"> <div> AMAZON JUNGLE PROGRAM </div> <bR> <div> The Shuar Comunitie "Tsuraku" provides medical, pre-medical, and public health students an excellent opportunity to learn about medical issues in Latin America and improve/practice their Spanish. </div> <bR> <div> Students will be able to learn about primary care, rural medicine, community medicine, indigenous cultures and indigenous rights. This is a unique opportunity to immerse yourself in a grassroots development project. </div> <bR> <div> Students will spend three week in the jungle under the supervision of a local preceptor. They will train local health promoters by providing hands on training at the clinic sites and by holding workshops on various public health issues like hygiene, sanitation, preventive medicine and family planning issues. The students will have the opportunity to visit remote communities in the jungle that are not connected by road or air. </div> <bR> <div> Ecuador, the smallest country in the rugged Andean highlands of north-western South America, has a rich diversity of indigenous cultures, landscape, plant and animal life. The Ecuadorian Amazon, also called the Oriente, has huge tracts of dense rainforests in the eastern part of the country. It is divided into two regions, the Northern and Southern Pastazas, separated by the Rio Pastaza. </div> <bR> <div> The Shuar inhabit 32 communities in the Southern Pastaza province, with a population of 2000. The nearest city to the villages of the Shuar is Puyo, which is located approximately 90 miles south-east of Quito, the capital city. Most of the communities are bilingual in Shuar and Spanish. </div> <bR> <div> The Shuar villagers are generally poor with low formal educational levels. They have inadequate basic services and amenities such as potable water and sanitary waste disposal. There are only three clinics serving thirty-two communities spread out in the Amazon jungles. Consequently, a clinic is a day's walk and a bus ride away for most villagers. The clinics are understaffed and have limited service hours and inadequate facilities, so patients with serious medical problems are referred to the distant city of Puyo, requiring further travel by bus. As money for transportation is hard to come by for the indigent villagers, most medical problems go essentially untreated. So, in spite of the best efforts of the clinic staff, infectious diseases, including bacterial and parasitic diarrhea, skin infections and systemic illnesses are endemic. Prenatal care is rarely available, thus infant mortality rates are particularly high in this region of the rural Pastaza, even when compared to other areas of rural Ecuador. The people of these communities are determined to improve the quality of their life and have been actively seeking access to modern health care.</div> <bR> <div> <A HREF="id23.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Contáctenos"><U>Contacto</U></A></div> </td> </tr></table></body>