THE TIWANAKU PROJECT
A non profit organization with the purpose of treating children and adults
with acute burns while assisting with any long term rehabilitation
HISTORY OF OUR MISSION
TIWANAKU WAS THE ORIGINAL CAPITAL OF THE INCAS 500 YEARS BEFORE MACHU PICHU.
FOR THE INCAS, TIWANAKU WAS THE CENTER OF THE UNIVERSE. DUE TO HIGH ALTITUDE, COLD
WEATHER AND NO VEGETATION THEY MOVED TOWARDS CUZCO AND EVENTUALY MACHU PICHU WHICH HAS LOWER ALTITUDE AND VEGETATION DUE TO THE RIVER PILCOMAYO.
The Bolivian Altiplano at about 12,000 feet (3,980 meters) high is very cold. There is a great incidence of burn injuries in children because of the precarious living conditions.
A family of four or five children lives in one room that serves as their bedroom, dining room, living room, and kitchen. The cooking is done on small ground level kerosene stoves. Most of the scalding burn injuries occur when children are playing while the mother is cooking or they are trying to cook themselves when both parents work. Because there is no electricity in some rural areas, candles are used. Playing with matches, firecrackers and making bonfires because of the cold in the altiplano are other causes that contribute to the great incidence of burns in children. Data obtained from the local hospital from the years 2000-2010 show an incidence of about 600 children burned with 70% of those being scalding injuries. I WAS BORN IN THIS TOWN of about 300,000 inhabitants (in addition to surrounding rural areas where there was no burn unit).
Due to the necessity we decided to build a burn unit to treat these children and adults. THE FUNDS FOR THE INFRASTRUCTURE WERE A CONTRIBUTION OF MY FAMILY AND MY Mother-in-law ANNA MARIE DOBLER AS A GIFT TO THE PLACE WHERE I WAS BORN.
Construction of the Burn Unit
The construction of the burn unit started in 2006. It was planned to be a two-story building similar to the ones we have in the United States, equipped with an emergency room, intensive care rooms, operating rooms, recovery rooms, step down rooms, hydro therapy, physical therapy, and other facilities to take care of acute burns and their long term rehabilitation. In 2010 we completed the first phase and we opened the out-patient clinic. At the end of 2016 this burn facility started to treat patients twenty four hours a day, seven days a week.
The site of the infrastructure was donated by the mayor of the city of Oruro at the San Juan de Dios General Hospital. This hospital (for indigent people) is about a hundred and fifty years old and is supported by the government.
We encountered many problems during construction, including lack of building materials, road blockades due to political confrontations, as well as labor disputes resulting in strikes. Cold weather in the winter months was also a factor in limiting our ability to proceed as planned.
2006 Initial Location
2008 Construction
2009 Construction
2010 Opening Ceremony
2012 Ready to be open the burn unit
Current Activities
To educate doctors, nurses, paramedics and students on the treatment of burn victims, several academic programs were started. The first international burn symposium in Oruro was held in 2010. Doctors, specialized in burn care from the United States, Brazil, Argentina, and throughout Bolivia participated.
After the infrastructure was finished we accomplished our first step to help indigent children that suffer burn injuries. As a result of these injuries there are significant physical and psychological problems. The emotional, financial, and geographic impact on the family is also great. One parent usually accompanies the child from outlying villages. Most of these children require acute critical yet expensive medical care for their survival and their families do not have the economic means to provide for their needs. It is our mission to raise substantial funds through personal individual donations, corporate donations and grants from private foundations as financial support for the operation and medical equipment of our recently constructed burn unit. Our focus is on the needs of these indigent burned children in Bolivia:
CRITICAL CARE UPON INITIAL INJURY
REHABILITATION AND FOLLOW UP FOR OPTIMAL RECOVERY, SCHOOL SUPPORT AND RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY OF BURN SEQUELA.
Therefore, our goal is to help move these pediatric patients from the phase of initial treatment to long-term survival and rehabilitation.
We believe that continuous medical education for doctors, nurses, paramedics and first responders is important to deliver optimum burn care. We hope to provide medical professionals who specialize in burn injuries who volunteer their expertise to train the burn unit staff. To help educate the local healthcare professionals about the needs of burned children through teaching programs and conferences, we already started to have international symposiums and would like to continue with this endeavor.
Our priority as a long term goal is to minimize burn injuries in children who through the development of prevention programs. By using the media (TV programs) and school programs for parents, teachers, and students we hope to reduce the number of burn injuries especially in the younger population. The police, army and all government agencies will be involved as well in these prevention programs.
Long Term Goals
Dr. Caceres addresses the audience
Typical Patients
How you can help
We need burn specialists: doctors, nurses, therapists, dietitians, psychologists, social workers to give us their input to improve the medical care of these patients and help to continue to train the burn unit staff.
If you would like to donate to the Tiwanaku project, please contact us at drcaceres4@gmail.com
