Youthlinc - Creating lifetime humanitarians

PERU
Tentative Trip Dates: July 1 – July 15, 2011

Palmeras, Peru

This year the Youthlinc Peru Team was largest Youthlinc team to travel abroad. We had 43 participants work hard in the small Amazon village of Palmeras. With a generous donation from the Michel Family Foundation, the team helped the people of Palmeras realize a 19 year goal of building a secondary school building for the community. Here are the committee accomplishments for this year.

We thank the Iquitos Rotary Club and send a special thank you to Carlos Acosta for the amazing work they do in coordinating our trip.

peru

Construction Committee

The committee and the team worked hard this year on a number of construction projects including:

The full completion of a secondary school
The near completion of a medical shed (to be completed by the villagers)
Finished laying 220 of cement walkway
Helped initiate a Rotary International project that will bring bathrooms and a water tower to the community, thanks to the support of Kaysville and Lehi, Utah Clubs, as well as Rotary Club of Iquitos, Peru.
Raised funds for a generator for the community
Planned out next year’s construction projects

peru Medical Committee

This year the medical team accomplished a lot. Prior to the trip, the committee collected supplies and donations assembling 100 family first aid kits that were distributed to families by the village leaders.

In country, the team ran a day long health fair teaching lessons in CPR/choking, basic first aid, family planning with cycle beads, proper lifting techniques, hygiene and sanitation, and poison control. They were able to perform a medical assessment f the area under the guidance of Dr. Michael Miescier of Primary Children’s Hospital. The team also helped determine supplies to be stocked in the nearly completed medical shed and visited clinics in the surrounding villages.

Dental Committee

This year’s committee, led by Heber Rotarian Jeff Daun and Brice Jensen DDS, was busy improving oral hygiene along the banks of the Amazon. The committee held a dental hygiene fair in Palmeras teaching proper brushing and flossing; they prepared and distributed 300-400 dental kits to three different villages (Palmeras, Santa Rosa, and Yanamono); distributed Spanish translations of proper brushing and flossing techniques; and provided dental clinic s for Palmeras and the near by village of Santa Rosa.

Education Committee

The education committee was able to help distribute educational supplies and prepare and teach lessons in country. Each Youthlinc pair of students had the opportunity to teach their prepared lesson to three different classes and rotated through two daily teach blocks of three hours for a span of four days. Youthlinc students interacted with and taught the students of Plameras about holidays, geography, the water cycle, shapes, numbers, health, music, art, games, etc.

The committee was also able to take part in a pilot program with the Mondo Art Project (MAP). After a successful year with MAP, Youthlinc is proud to partner with MAP in each of its sites the coming year.

Microenterprise and Vocational (MEV)

This year’s team was busy teaching business lessons and loan plans and improving vocational training opportunities in the area. The group helped move sewing machines provided the previous year to a sewing school in a nearby village. The team donated sewing supplies and 300 soles to fund a two-week sewing school in the fall.

peru The group held three days of classes on microenterprise in Palmeras covering loans, business choice and creation, marketing and basic accounting. A fourth day was spent on accepting loan applications from the villagers, who, as instructed, organized groups, prepared business plans, and applied for loans. The committee will determine which groups will receive loans and funds will be sent by late September.

The committee also followed up on last year’s accomplishments, by assessing the progress of business loans in the village of Santa Rosa. They collected loan repayments and prepared a report of the progress.

Cultural Exchange

The committee bridge cultural gaps by planning out dances and skits for the opening and closing ceremonies. They also helped organized the painting of a mural in the village using the hands of both Youthlinc participants and villagers. The team held a carnival for the community playing games and giving out prizes.

2011 Trip

The 2011 team will be returning to the village of Palmeras and can look forward to participating in even more construction projects like laying a cement court for the school and extending the cement walkways in the village. We are also hoping to build a foot bridge to make medical care more easily and readily accessible for the village of Palmeras. There is still much to be done with microenterprise and follow up is essential to make the program a continued success.

peru 2011 Team Leader - Jeff Daun

Jeff started his Youthlinc experience as the Dental Committee mentor with the 2010 Peru team and he is excited to return to Palmeras as the 2011 Peru team leader. He is looking forward to being accompanied by his wife, Ramona, who is an English teacher at Rocky Mountain Middle School. Jeff served an LDS mission to Okayama, Japan. Jeff has extensive international travel experience from when he was the Asia-Pacific Sales Manager for Rolls-Royce Energy.

Jeff has consistently been involved with service, especially when it involves youth. He served as a Boys Scouts of America Scoutmaster for 5 years in Columbus, Georgia. For the past 17 years Jeff has volunteered as a youth soccer coach helping countless youth grow in character and stature. He has also served as a board member and club president for the Heber Valley Storm Competitive Soccer Club. He serves as a High School and youth soccer referee (something he has done in his spare time for the past 13 years), which has given him the opportunity to be around youth and understand how to mentor them. Jeff is currently a member of the Heber Valley Rotary club and has been involved for more than 7 years with the various service projects they perform.

Jeff is employed by day as the Executive Director of Marketing and Sales for Marsh Creek, LLC – an Alaskan Native Corporation involved in the Oil, Gas and Energy markets. When Jeff is not coaching or refereeing he enjoys boating, hiking, camping, skiing, jogging and yard work.

He is looking forward to returning to the village of Palmeras, Peru with another group of youth and seeing the lives of the villagers and students changed.

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