In mid-January, 2009 six students from the Rotaract Club of the Claremont Colleges traveled with APECA to the field study center, El Fundo. There, they traveled up the Amazon River to work with children and adults to plant the first trees of a reforestation project and help villagers restore a small rural health outpost, attended by an APECA trained volunteer health care provider.

The District of Fernando Lores is located in the rainforest Region of Loreto, a geographical area that is almost one third of the territory of Peru. The lack of infrastructure complicates the delivery of human services to the 132 small isolated villages of the district. The only medical doctor is found in the Health Center while technicians manage the services of the 12 field outposts. Restoring this vital independent outpost will bring life saving service to hundreds of people.

The building of the health outpost proved a rewarding experience, as the students became immersed in the community and crossed cultural barriers while working with adults, playing games with the children such as "Pato, Pato, Gallina" and celebrating family birthdays as a community.

With the saplings from El Fundo, the reforestation project started by these students was especially rewarding in that it gave them the opportunity to make a small difference in mitigating the major international crisis of global warming, as well as educate village children about the importance of conservation.

All agreed that the most eye-opening experience was visiting the Pediatric Ward of Hospital Apoyo Iquitos. There, the students distributed drawings and crayons to the many eager children and their parents. In this community of extreme poverty, government assistance does not even provide first aid in case of emergency without the patient first purchasing the supplies. Malnourished babies, bellies extended with parasites, machete wounds, and respiratory infections are a common site in this ward. This unforgettable experience inspired several of the students to pursue future attempts, perhaps even careers, to alleviate circumstances like these that exist in third-world countries.

All in all, the trip was profoundly life changing and eye-opening for all of the students, and a great experience all around. The Rotaract Club of the Claremont Colleges plans to keep working with APECA in the future, developing what may hopefully be a long-lived relationship with this munificent organization.