Notes From the Field: Lighting Up Medical Care in the Most Hard to Reach Places

In this Notes From the Field, we take a look at Team 5 Medical Foundation’s trip to the remote city of Moro in Peru. Team 5 is a veteran foundation that provides medical care in the most overlooked and remote areas of the world.

Report from Team 5:

We are deep in Peru and doing a joint mission with the Peruvian Navy’s 7th Fleet and the Ministry of Health (MINSA). We have handed out hundreds of LuminAID solar lights and have been using them in the clinic and pharmacy. At the moment, we’ve treated over 1,500 patients and still have 5 days to go, including about 20 cleft palates plastic surgeries.

The team sailed 16 hours from Lima to Chambote, Peru and then traveled another hour and a half by military convoy to the city of Moro, a very underdeveloped and remote location. This is the first time that any humanitarian aid has reached the city, and while Team 5 and the Peruvian Navy were at the clinic, it was the largest gathering in local history.

In addition to handing out the LuminAID lights to the people they treat, Team 5 also used the solar lanterns to light their tents so they could continue to treat patients, regardless of the amount of natural light available.

About Team 5

Imagine creating a small group of hand-selected medical and survival experts who venture into the most extreme and austere locations on this globe to educate local healthcare workers, provide remote medicine and donate supplies to developing areas so they can be self sufficient.

Imagine flying, riding, paddling and trekking for countless hours into thick canopy jungles where GPS doesn’t work, no electricity and relying on your teammates for your survival.

Imagine a team willing to speak English to Spanish to Q’eqchi’ in order to teach a medical class, treat patients, and help indigenous people who have never seen a practitioner.

We are Team 5. A non-profit volunteer organization who relies on your sponsorship, donations and assistance to make all this possible.

About LuminAID

When we think of our most basic human needs, we often think of food, water and shelter. But when architecture graduate students Anna Stork and Andrea Sreshta were asked to design a product to assist post-earthquake relief efforts in Haiti, they considered the dangerous conditions at night in the tent cities and turned their attention to another critical need: light. They designed the LuminAID light to be easily distributed in time of need by packing and shipping flat.

To date, through partnerships with NGOs and relief organizations, LuminAID has assisted thousands of people around the world by providing access to safe light in dangerous situations. Through the Give Light, Get Light program, customers can purchase a LuminAID light for themselves and sponsor another one to help make light more accessible and sustainable for all.