Nancy Bonalumi recently returned from Bolivia. She was not on vacation. Nor was it her first visit to the country. For years, Bonalumi, an RN at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, has volunteered with Project Helping Hands, a nonprofit organization that sends volunteer medical teams to remote areas in developing nations.
Over the years, Bonalumi has traveled to Nepal, Kenya, and recently, on her fifth Bolivian excursion, led four American volunteers, seven Bolivian physicians and a group of dentists to eight remote villages along the Amazon Basin. The team ran free clinics over two weeks, and saw 1,500 patients.
Traveling by air, bus, boat, and foot, the team delivered first-aid and medicine such as antibiotics, ibuprofen, prenatal vitamins, splinting materials, toothbrushes, and even reading glasses.
“These villages primarily consist of hardworking subsistence farmers, so we taught back stretches, knee bends, and yoga poses to prevent soreness or injury,” Bonalumi said. “We also talked about hand hygiene, feminine hygiene, and contraception. That’s really important to me. Young women in these communities don’t always have the option to finish their education, so we wanted to give them the tools to control their sexual health.”
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