Heather Morrison & I are members of Banchory -Ternan Rotary Club & we are raising money for oxygen concentrators for people living in the Piura region of Northern Peru. There is a desperate lack of oxygen to help those suffering from Covid-19.

 We are also being joined by Shirley Marshall as we step out of our comfort zone to ride the FASTEST Zip Line in the world in North Wales on Monday 2nd August.

Peru officially has the highest death rates per capita in the world due to Covid. The Mortality Rate in the recent wave in Peru is now reckoned to be 1:200 of an estimated population of 33million. To make a comparison, this figure is higher than the the Mortality Rate recorded in the UK during the 1918 Spanish flu epidemic.

Richard Hackett, CEO of CEPI, the Coalition of Epidemic Preparedness Innovators, spoke of his concern for the death toll in Peru when he was interviewed about the low levels of vaccines being shared with developing countries.

You can read more  about this in the Reuters article below - https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/peru-almost-triples-official-covid-19-death-toll-after-review-180000-2021-05-31/

The donations will be made via our Rotary’s charity account & then sent to Marleny Bardales, from Piura. Marleny is an incredible teacher and administrator and she was elected to become the Director of Fe Y Alegria schools for the Northern Zone of Peru. I have known her for several years and she is an inspiration. She works at grass roots level with teachers and social workers in the often forgotten rural areas of Piura.

 Marleny is a Notre Dame Sister, a teaching order founded in Belgium providing access to education for girls. Marleny will ensure that the Oxygen Concentrators will be used by those in most need in rural Peru.

In the late 1970's I had the opportunity to live and teach for two years in the Piura region with the help of the Sisters. It was a highlight of my life, making many friends and sharing in the lives of many families who welcomed me so generously. It is these families who are now suffering from lack of oxygen, medication and food and why we feel so moved to ask you for help to buy oxygen concentrators that can save lives at home using  the air around us, instead of expensive and impossible to obtain oxygen.

Sister Marleny’s idea is that the villages who are benefitting from these life saving machines hold a raffle. She will provide a large tin of cooking oil and a sack of rice as prizes and the proceeds are then put towards servicing the machines, food and medication for the community. ‘Receivers’ are enabled  to become ‘givers’  and so a positive dynamic is established.

Thank you for your support.

We look forward to sharing videos of our experience with you!

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