Peru project 2021
OXYGEN CONCENTRATOR in PERU
Oxygen concentrator in Peru
A friend of ours used to work in Peru and kept many friends there over the years. When Peru was declared the country in the world the most hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, our friend decided to raise money for an oxygen concentrator. She made a request to AKUN to help and we decided to commit to buying one oxygen concentrator. They are portable and so can be brought to rural villages even high up in the mountains. Some of them work with just electricity but others are dual battery powered.
These are photos sent from Peru using the concentrators already bought with donations raised by the Sisters Marleny and Laura.
The oxygen concentrator will be bought and received in Peru by Sister Marleny who belongs to the Belgian community of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Our friend Christina worked with her in Peru before and trusts her to put the concentrator to a good use in the needed area. Sister Marleny and Sister Laura have been raising funds for several concentrators. Sister Laura is from the same congregation and is Belgian but she is home at present undergoing cancer treatment. She still managed to fundraise to help buy five more oxygen concentrators.
The Sisters both work in Malingas in the country with the Fe y Alegría rural schools programme just outside Tambogrande.
Before the pandemic, they hosted annually a group of young medical student volunteers who live and work in areas of health, social work and teaching in this huge rural backwater.
Sister Marleny has bought 6 concentrators in Peru so far with donations. They usually vary in price from 8999 -7200 soles. Now she has found 3 available at 6700 soles. This works out at approximately 1500 euros or 1800 $US .
Each concentrator has already saved many lives at a critical stage of the virus so no need for hospital admission even if there were beds available. There is such a shortage of everything in hospitals now that even beds have to be accessed and bought.
The concentrators can be used just as much in Tambogrande and larger villages as they now have electricity day and night. The dual battery powered machines are in very short supply as the main US suppliers have also sent these to India.
With the funds raised by AKUN, Sister Marleny will buy one concentrator as soon as possible and we will post photos of the machine being used when we received them.