Participate in community health fairs

Working and learning in the community

Health care students and professionals taking programs with the Medical Elective Network in Peru usually focus on their clinical rotation and/or medical Spanish program. However, participating in our community health fairs is often their most rewarding and memorable experience here.

These weekly health fairs are the ideal opportunity to use both Spanish and clinical skills.

So, what happens at our community health fairs?

The fairs now take place on Friday mornings at different locations around the city.

A typical fair is attended by 40 to 80 people, with everyone from babies to the elderly. All attendees have minimal income. For this reason, the medicine and consultations we provide are without charge.

We typically set up at 8 am and finish between 12 noon and 1 pm. Our team is divided into different roles, including triage, consultation tables, and pharmacy.

Who will we see

Patient profiles depend on where each fair takes place. However, you will see a wide range of primary health issues.

It can be noisy

Depending on who our partner for the fair is, these can be noisy events. They may include a band, dancers, and hairdressers providing free haircuts. They are rarely an ideal environment for clinical consultations. However, it does make for events that you will remember.

Our partners

We partner with many local organizations to ensure that each community health fair runs smoothly. These partners include the National Police, local authorities, local clinics, colleges, and the national prison service.

It is the role of our partners to provide a safe location for the event to take place. They are also responsible for promoting the health fair among the local population and ensuring that our team is kept busy, seeing as many people as possible.

Providing healthcare in the community each week is a great way to measure your Spanish improvement

Language and Clinical Support

Of course, we would not expect you to see dozens of patients in Spanish alone. Each month we have a mix of students and professional participants with differing levels of Spanish.

The day before each health fair, program participants come together with our team to discuss the format of the fair. Our physicians will advise of the common patient complaints to expect and the medicines we have available. At the meeting, our physicians will also determine the team structure.

Clinical support from our doctors

Each month we have professional program participants. In addition to this, we have a team of junior doctors who manage each event. Our team of doctors carries outpatient consultations and supervises the work of program participants.

Spanish support from our language teachers

Our language teachers will also be on hand to ensure that you can communicate with patients effectively. As each week progresses on the program, you will note your Spanish language confidence improving at the health fairs.

Community involvement

Community health fairs are an increasingly important element of our program. One that makes a positive impact on local communities and enables program participants to put their developing medical Spanish skills into practice.

We have increased the frequency of the health fairs from just one every few months, when we began, several years ago, to one every week, today. In the future, we intend to further complement this with a static primary health service in one low-income area.

Each year we also work in partnership with visiting surgical teams from the US and Canada running providing free surgeries for people with limited resources.

Typically a visiting surgical team of 20 to 25 professionals will carry out over 50 operations over 4 or 5 days.