Peru Medical and Public Health Volunteer

Gain experience at a Cuzco clinic or hospital. ELI offers placements at several low-income facilities where volunteers support staff doctors and nurses based on their experience and training. The hospitals and clinics provide a wide variety of services, including first aid, midwifery, gynecological/OBGYN care to pregnant women and laboratory work.

Public health students here will also gain valuable insights into Peru’s medical system and the local public health campaigns that focus on vaccination, hygiene, environmental protection and care for the home-bound.

These placements are open to pre-medical/nursing and public health students, as well as the more advanced medical students and residents. The tasks carried out by each participant depends entirely on their experience and is at the discretion of their supervisor. Interns can help in various areas like lab work, gynecology, traumatology, pharmacy, preventive medicine, and more. Interns will be assigned to an area where they are best qualified to assist; the possibility to rotate among various departments is also an option.

ELI's programs are based in Lima, the Spanish capital on the Pacific Ocean, and in Cusco, the Incan capital high in the Andes. Volunteers in Lima will experience the excitement of living and working in one of the largest cities in South America. From the colonial streets of downtown to the chic high-rises of Miraflores, Lima has adventures for almost everyone. Volunteers have the opportunity to learn firsthand about day to day life in Lima through working with organizations devoted to serving street children, domestic workers, and migrant workers.

Cusco is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the Americas, and is a premier destination for world travelers. Bits of conversations in languages from all over the world echo through the narrow streets built by the Inca over 1000 years ago. Volunteers have the opportunity to experience Cusqueño life on a deeper level than most travelers through living with a local family and working with local organizations devoted to education, child welfare, and community development.