Medical AID
Medical Program
The Medical Services Program constitutes SELVA-Vida Sin Fronteras’ (SVSF) principal activity, and was first implemented 12 years ago under the auspices of SVSF-NL. The program is based on the principal of offering a service that requests “Nothing in Return”; patients do not pay for the treatment they receive, nor are they required to adopt a particular religious belief or a specific political affiliation.
The SVSF medical team incorporates four Doctors and Nursed based in local hospitals in Quito and Shamans experts in traditional medicine. Specialists from international hospitals and universities invaluably volunteer their support on an annual basis. Amazon indigenous patients receive treatment in the land-based clinic situated on our Amazon Reserve for Peace, while the more isolated communities benefit from 16 fluvial clinics per year, serviced by a fleet of three river ambulances.
Over the past 12 years the program has grown from an initial 1,000 to 5,000 patients who receive regular treatment on an annual basis. Special emphasis and priority are given to pre and post-natal care; In 2020, 70% of patients were under 5 and 10 years old which is encouraging increase of 45% in less than five years.
Medical Program
Given the unacceptable high rates of mortality evident in our project area, the medical program has several principal objectives: Urgently address malnutrition, associated with extreme poverty. The combination of medicine and food relief has proven to be exceedingly successful. Control parasitosis, a condition that is wide spread, with a disturbing frequency of sepsis, which challenges immune systems and triggers damage to multiple organ systems. Results have been encouraging and four areas –Pisuri, San Victoriano, San Pablo and Sinangoe – are now virtually parasitosis free, although evidently more work has to be done.
Inroads are also being made to tackle malaria, one of the deadliest parasitic diseases; Plasmodium vivax is the most common strain although the deadly Plasmodium falciparum has been detected in the more isolated communities within out project area, which is being contained, but with mixed outcomes. An educational policy is also integrated within the medical program. SVSF awards scholarships for applicants interested in becoming nurses and paramedics and who wish to serve and empower their communities. Four nurses and two paramedics have successfully graduated within this area of specialization, and now participate actively in our clinics.
