Program Description
The Public Health Centers in Argentina work together with local hospitals and provide the community with basic health care and prevention. Being public they attend to any person for free, but they put special attention to the most vulnerable population, women and children, through their doctors and social workers. This is the case of the "Health Centre and Social Assistance" located in Villa 21 (shantytown).
The shantytown is a big housing area located in the south part of Buenos Aires city. The neighborhood have a lot of deficiencies, from the street paving, sewertothe conditionsof the houses, but also huge public health issues because it was build near to a very polluted river of the city. The population, most of it is migrants from Paraguay, deals with the poverty, overcrowding and violence of the villa every day.
The Health Centre offers basic health attention to the most vulnerable population. The centre is always full of children, women and elderly, and that's why the main medical specialties are clinicians, dermatologists, pediatricians, psychologists, gynecologists and obstetricians. The director and volunteers coordinator, Beatriz, believes that social work focus on prevention and promotion of healthy life styles is the main tool of the doctors working there. That's why she holds a program called "healthy children" to have the chance to work with the kids before they get sick, and offer training workshops to their mothers. This is the space where the doctors can follow the development of kids, apply vacations and detect health problemson time.
The health centre, through the psychology area, also works with other social institutions of the shantytown, as soup kitchens, community centers and schools. This is a way to reach the general populations and especially the teenagers that don't usually visit the health centers.
Volunteers Tasks
- The volunteer will shadow doctors and nurses and learn from their work and procedures, however, they won't be able to practice medicine themselves unless this is approved by the professional in charge.
- Help in the prevention campaigns, health promotion workshops and the vaccination days in the centre.
- Participate in the "healthy children" program helping the nurses in the evaluation of the kids.
MInimum Stay
12 weeks
Availability
The Centers are opened Monday to Friday, from 8:00 to 20:00 hs. The volunteer schedule will be arranged with local coordinator depending on the needs of the centre and the interests of the volunteer.
Spanish Level Required
Advanced
