This is a message from my friend Paul Rearden, a member to participate in this meeting as payamédico.
Students of the University of La Plata and the UBA will participate in an international gathering of volunteers to be held in the Peruvian town of Bethlehem (Iquitos), from 6 to 12 August.
IV is the Hospital Clowns Travel (Payamédicos) will bring together 100 volunteers from clowns, sociologists, architects, painters and students of medicine and psychology that in addition to put smiles on the hospital environment, paint and do workshops with children, plan a great Festival of Health. Young Argentine
also studying medicine and / or psychology, work as clowns in hospital Children's Hospital Sor Maria Ludovica of the city of La Plata and Buenos Aires Udaondo Hospital and under it, were invited to participate of this project.
What is the Organization Payamédicos
A physician or advanced students who dress up as clowns to help children and adults with different pathologies in hospital situations. The theater is in line with therapeutic In order to improve the emotional quality of patients to a hospital and a place where fantasy, laughter and warmth also have their space.
was established in 2003 as a nonprofit association, but Payamédicos began their work by the end of 2002, when Joseph Pellucchi, Intensive Care Service of Gastroenterology Hospital Bonorio Udaondo and Andrea Romero, the service of Child and Adolescent Psychopathology Hospital and Clinics met their concerns and decided to use technology to help clown inpatients. His proposal has a beginning and an end treatment. Keep track of patients and their medical history, visit them regularly.
This is a practice similar to that developed by Dr. Patch Adams, Gesundheit current coordinator of the United States and, together with the group Doctors Bolaroja Peru-equivalent of our Payamédicos-coordinated the Bethlehem 2008 Project.
Laughter is part of the job of a payamédico, is a resource, the patient always try to have fun, but not all, aim to improve the emotional quality in a potentially traumatic as admission.
The Payamédicos working with children and adults are not paid for their work, but give their time, wear costumes, gifts, and a genuine concern for others and their welfare. Most of them are students of medicine and psychology, there are some artists, but all receive training that prepares them to function in hospitalized patients.
Project Bethlehem 2008 Bethlehem is a community in the Peruvian jungle where there are plenty of problems: no water, no drainage, extreme poverty, overcrowding in homes, child sex tourism there (three words to put together a chill), too many infectious diseases, too many teenage pregnancies, alcoholism, crime ... but despite all that, Belén aún tiene la maravillosa capacidad de sonreír.
Este es el cuarto viaje a Iquitos. En el primero (2005) actuaron en hospitales, asilos, una base militar, la cárcel, un centro de enfermedades mentales, hasta que llegaron a Belén y quedaron atrapados entre la alegría del encuentro y el dolor que producía la situación que veían
Por eso en el segundo viaje quisieron hacer algo más con la comunidad y llegaron a Belén 51 payasos de 7 países que, además de las intervenciones clownescas, les propusieron pintar las fachadas de las casas de toda una calle. No solucionaron sus problemas, pero devolvieron un poco de esperanza al mostrar que con una acción tan sencilla like that could look and feel different.
In 2007 there were 70 volunteers from 11 countries (France, Colombia, Canada, Peru, U.S., Germany, Mexico, Russia, Chile, Venezuela, England) and new allies in the Faculty of Medicine, Cayetano Heredia University and the Organization Pan American Health 150 houses painted, coordinated free workshops for 500 children in the area and encourage the creation of a Network Pro-Bethlehem.
For 2008 plan something else: continue to work and sow the seeds of what will be the ongoing project looking at that community.
Our students are from Tres Arroyos, San Cayetano, Lincoln, Mar del Plata and Buenos Aires, have a vocation and courage, are united by a spirit of solidarity and the dream of a better world. They need our support and collaboration for your project is not a utopia. For those who join desan
offer a bonus-contribution of $ 5 with the aim of mitigating the costs they face.
For more information: http://payasabelen.blogspot.com /
