Aside from the responsibilities of a family, there are people who always take responsibility for the wellbeing of others in their community, especially for those with health problems who need support and don’t know their way around the bureaucracy of the Peruvian health care system.
Among these people are the Health Promotion Specialists, men and women who voluntarily attend to patients with serious health problems, helping them to obtain treatment and the correct documents they needin order to receive such treatment. These Health Promotion Specialistswork in collaboration with the Ministryof Health in Peru but do not receive any compensation for their practices.
Janet Reynoso is a Health Promotion Specialistwho has dedicated her life to ensuringthe wellbeing of her family and of many others in her community. She is a 41-year-old woman who is constantly in check with her patients — their necessities, their treatment, and their progress. She always remembers what her sister told her: “don’t do something good only to expect something in return.” Since then, Janet has strived to live her life by her sister’s words.
We began our first Mobile Clinics in Nueva Esperanza two years ago — a community located the district of Villa Maria del Triunfo in Lima where Janet lives. Janet was inspired to get involved with MEDLIFE’s work and reached out to our organization.
She first began collaborating with us by assisting at our Mobile Clinics throughout different districts in the city of Lima. It was due to her dynamic and pro-active character that she was able to mobilize hundreds of community members, inspiring them to receive medical attention at our Mobile Clinics. Because of her excellent work, MEDLIFE promoted Janet to be the Coordinator of Mobile Clinics, a position that requires her to seek out new communities for future Mobile Clinics. Apart from her new position and work with MEDLIFE, Janet continues to be dedicated to her health promotion services for 72 individual patients around Lima.
Despite the incredible service that Janet has done for the people in her community and many others in Lima, Janet has also had many difficulties in her own life.
At the age of 21, Janet suffered an accident that changed her life forever. Her eyes came in contact with contaminated water — an incident that caused a corneal ulcer due to infection. Because of her limited financial resources, she did not receive medical attention for many years, and to this day, Janet lives with the terrible reality of having almost completely lost her sight in her left eye.
Currently, specialized medical providers are reviewing the case of Janet and searching for possible treatments so that she doesn’t completely lose sight in her left eye. She may even have to receive a corneal transplant, an operation that would be very difficult for Janet to afford herself financially. And despite everything, her biggest worry would not be herself, but her patients, whom she would no longer be able to help if her eye condition worsens.
MEDLIFE does not want to leave Janet to seek medical attention alone, as she has dedicated much of her life to social services and has been a great help in improving the experiences of our student volunteers on our Mobile Clinics. Janet is now part of MEDLIFE’s patient follow-up program so that our organization will be right at her side as she seeks the best treatment for her eyes. That way, Janet will be able to improve the quality of her health and her life, and can continue her passion of helping others in need.
To learn more about our patient follow-up program, please visit here
