We have never done a Go Fund Me project before. Heck, we’ve never been through a global pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic challenges in Perú are decimating the healthcare system in the country. We feel a compelling need to respond. We’re working with our medical and healthcare professional colleagues in Lima on a pilot project.
Check out our Go Fund Me project and learn more about our plans at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/per-oxygen-concentrator-response-project
As always, thank you for all your ongoing support.
Bending the Arc
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneDr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
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A New Social Order
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneThings are changing so fast.
I was on a call yesterday with a longterm partner and dear friend, Father Alex Busuttil. In addition to discussing our shared programs and strategies for future fundraising, we talked about the new social order that’s unfolding right before our eyes.
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Feeling Thankful
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneOne of the boys in the Casa Girasoles really needed a dentist. He was scared.
The pandemic has made it very challenging to get in to see a dentist in Perú. However, things opened up last week and we were able to get him seen, not once, but THREE times! His teeth, well – they were bad.
Not anymore. We’ve got him all fixed up and we have a prevention plan in place.
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For JD
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneIt is no secret, especially for those that know me – I love professional bike racing. I watch races from Europe a few times per week. It’s a passion.
Recently, however, I’m finding it harder and harder to watch the events. Races in France, Italy, Belgium, Spain – the crowds are a fraction of their pre-COVID numbers, but the fans showing up roadside – far too many aren’t wearing masks. It causes me great distress. I think about all the people who are impacted by what seems like a very personal decision. I think about Juan Diego.
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No Turning Back
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneGloria Steinem
I had to mail a couple of packages the other day. It had been months since I was inside the postal annex store in our neighborhood. The owner, a dynamic, friendly person who knows every customer’s name, asked me how I was doing.
In what seems like a custom of our pandemic-era, we talked about the changes that are occurring and the ways we are, or are not, coping. We spoke about Health Bridges and our work and the pandemic’s impact in Latin America and SS Africa. At one point, the conversation – a short exchange – turned to the topic of the day, what will be the new normal?I’ve had this conversation a lot lately. I’ve had it with my family, friends, co-workers, and acquittances. The one thing that seems to come up in all of the discussions is a desire not to go back to the way things were. Over and over again, I have heard people say some version of – let’s not lose the pandemic lessons in our rush to retrieve some semblance of normal.
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Hope
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneHere in North America, there is an ever so slight whisper of spring. Although we just survived an artic blast rarely seen, the promise of spring is apparent. It gives me hope.
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Processes in Parallel
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneBoys at the Casa Girasoles playing and having fun.
Thank goodness for a 10 acre property.Official figures report more than 7,000 deaths in Perú during the last week. Conventional belief is there are many more deaths undercounted. For all intent and purposes, systems are beginning to fail: Oxygen is challenging to find and expensive, hospitals are at capacity, and people are overwhelmed.
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COVID response in Perú
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneWe have never done a Go Fund Me project before. Heck, we’ve never been through a global pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic challenges in Perú are decimating the healthcare system in the country. We feel a compelling need to respond. We’re working with our medical and healthcare professional colleagues in Lima on a pilot project.
Check out our Go Fund Me project and learn more about our plans at: https://www.gofundme.com/f/per-oxygen-concentrator-response-project
As always, thank you for all your ongoing support.
Building Bridges
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by Wayne CentroneI bet there are a lot of us who are closely tracking the COVID cases in Latin America. The reports coming out of Manaus (a city of over 2 million people in northwestern Brazil) are incomprehensible and altogether a clarion call to the rest of Latin America and the world. This backdrop makes what happen over the past two weeks even more otherworldly.
About two weeks ago, I received a call from a physician who has been a Health Bridges partner for several years. He called to ask if I knew how to get health equipment (PPE, oxygen, etc.) into Brazil. He was calling on behalf of his daughter, an academic anthropologist who runs a venerable climate and forest NGO (GCF Task Force) funded in part by Norway and which partners with the UN. Read more
Connections
/0 Comments/in Blog, COVID-19 /by AdminToday, January 31, Perú re-enters a period of quarantine and inmovilizaciones sociales obligatorias. For the next two weeks, significant parts of the country will be under lock-down orders.
There will be nothing easy about these new restrictions. For many, the simple fact of their lives is this – theres is a need to be out-and-about to make the money they need to feed themselves and their families. For others, the struggle of the pandemic has pushed nerves to the point of breaking. For everyone, this will not be easy.
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