CFHI students made the local press in Ecuador this summer.  La Prensa, a local publication in the town of Puyo in the Pastaza Province of Southern Ecuador, carried a full page story of CFHI Students on the Amazon Indigenous Health Program, one of CFHI’s Global Health Immersion Programs.

CFHI Students Make New in Ecuador Summer 2010

Puyo, a city of about 25,000 people, with its close proximity to the Amazon Jungle, functions as the base for this program that allows students to see the interplay between the government Ministry of Health and the traditional medicine of indigenous populations living in the jungle much as they have for many hundreds of years.  Dr. Wilfrido Torres, a local physician and the Medical Director of several CFHI programs, reports that international students coming to Puyo and to the Jungle Region, “help the local population see that local doctors and community health workers have important knowledge to share with the world.”  CFHI is honored to have local experts like Dr. Torres who are eager to interact with international students.

This summer, the CFHI students were able to participate in a medical conference that CFHI helped support.  The conference, a multidisciplinary conference on the latest treatments and testing for diabetes and hypertension, was part of a series of conferences to educate health professionals and paraprofessionals on these chronic diseases that are relatively new to the local population.