The Amazon Medical Project

We do have some challenges to face. The difficulties in the U.S. economy have meant that tourism was way down in 2010, and the majority of our funding comes from people who have actually been to Peru and seen how people live along the river. Many of you have continued to support the Amazon Medical Project just as you always have, but some have written to say that their economic situation is not good, and with the drop in tourism, we are not getting many new donors. I am relieved that what we have received in donations has not dropped in the last couple of years, but neither has it grown, even though our costs have continued to rise.

Furthermore, the troubles with the U.S. economy, combined with growth in the Peruvian economic sector, have resulted in a plunging exchange rate. Everything for which we pay in nuevos soles, the Peruvian currency, costs us more, since we now receive fewer soles for each dollar we exchange - and what we pay in soles includes all the salaries and benefits in Peru, almost all of the clinic operations, virtually all of the medicines and lab supplies, all the Peruvian taxes, etc. I calculate that, if we had received the same exchange rate in 2010 that we did in 2005, our in-country costs in 2010 would have been $15,000 less.

When I first began seeing patients in Peru, I simply bought medicines out of my own pocket. Tourists began leaving occasional donations for me, and those donations gradually increased over the years. We reached a point ten or fifteen years ago where the clinic had outgrown the donations that were coming in, and Dan and Judy Peterson made an eloquent appeal for help, which resulted in a surge of generosity from many individuals which enabled us to keep us going. Since that time, our donor base seemed to grow along with the clinic, and we have been able to put some money aside in most years.

In 2010, that changed. We dipped heavily into the reserve we so slowly built up, taking out $50,000, which was the difference between what we received in contributions and what we spent. We were helped by our investments, which regained the value they had lost in 2009, and earned some more beyond that. But if 2011 and subsequent years follow the same pattern as 2010, it looks like the monies will last for perhaps four or five years more (at least if the markets continue to do fairly well). I have told the clinic employees that there will be no raises this year, even though several of them have gone a long time without any salary increases, and the prices for food and staples are rising steadily in Peru. But I may not be able to keep the doctor on staff without a raise, and we are now looking at getting a boat to take our patients on those emergency transports, and there may be other ways in which we continue to grow.

Fortunately, the new clinic continues to astound and delight, and even though I am now over 60 and even though I know that many of you are wondering how long I will want to continue doing this, I simply cannot imagine not seeing our clinic patients or staff, or not hearing the sounds of the rainforest, or the rain on my thatch roof.

The economy seems to be improving, the exchange rate has recently nudged back up just a tiny bit, and tourism looks to be improving, too, so who knows? - we may not need to dip into our reserve at all this year. At any rate, we will continue as long as we can, and we thank all of you for having made it possible this far.