MEDICAL ASSISTANCE
MEDICINE
PHYSIOTHERAPY
PEDIATRICS
MEDICINE
The medical center is one of the first projects launched within the parish, thanks to the help of Dr. Donatella Barbera, known to all as Doda, originally from Biella.
It is opened twice a week by Dr. Irene Mita, who offers free healthcare and takes care of the health needs of local residents, making use of essential tools such as a portable ultrasound machine.
We are also equipped with portable oxygen and a defibrillator.
PHYSIOTHERAPY
The “FisioPeñas” physiotherapy project was born in 2014 thanks to the initiative of Guido Barindelli, a physiotherapist and professor at the University of Milan-Bicocca, and Father “Topio” Antonio Zavatarelli.
It is a well-established organization that offers a continuous and free service to the local communities, thanks to the daily work of a Bolivian physiotherapist who serves as the project's permanent point of contact. Every three months, the project is enriched with the presence of Italian physiotherapists who, on a rotating basis, bring their expertise, energy, and a strong spirit of cultural exchange. They are also joined by an intern, who also rotates every three months, who enjoys a unique hands-on training experience, immersed in a world where professionalism blends with solidarity.
FisioPeñas is not just rehabilitation: it is listening, relating, and caring.
CONTACT US
Bolivia: Jose (+591) 73735566
Italia: Andrea (+39) 334578838
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PEDIATRICS
The “Peñas Project” is a structured project of the Parish of Peñas which, taking into account local conditions, cultural traditions and limited resources, aims to experiment with the figure and the possible role of a community pediatric nurse supported by telemedicine and by an artificial-intelligence chatbot created specifically for that context.
The objective of the project is to verify whether this type of professional figure is able, in addition to providing care and assistance services, to modify—by using a small-steps health-education methodology (nudge-nudge health literacy)—certain “malpractices” still present in the care and raising of children, which are determined by traditional approaches now outdated, by the sociocultural level of the families, and by the limited economic resources of the local population.
The reference context of the project is the province of Los Andes, part of the Department of La Paz, which has about 20,000 inhabitants grouped into 79 communities. The main community is Batallas, located at an altitude of 3,800 meters, with 2,000 inhabitants. Peñas, instead, is the reference center for the high plateau beneath the Cordillera Real, located at 3,970 meters above sea level, with a population—also including other small settlements and especially the scattered houses and farms on the plateau—of about 6,000 inhabitants.
