Nestled in the mountains of Peru, there’s a place called Cusco where you’ll find the cancer patient group, Lazos Solidarios (Solidarity Ties). Yusef Herrera, created Lazos Solodarios to help cancer patients in this remote region in 2009 and today, the organization is supporting families facing CML and LLA, many of them children. Yusef, a dentist, became a committed advocate to close the cancer divide between these rural communities and their access to treatment and support.
In the beginning, there were many national security problems in an area dominated by drug dealers and terrorists. People were unprotected and scared, and a cancer diagnosis the last worry they needed. Yusef was joined by an economist and physician, and together, they worked to change the quality of life of the rural farmers, taking them out of illegal activities and guiding them through the process of coffee exportation. Farmers were empowered by the new trade and families benefitted from health and awareness campaigns that improved their well-being.
In 2009, they turned their focus on the city of Cusco, developing solidarity jobs with a group of teenagers in hospitals. They decided to create an organization with the objective of developing solidarity among the villages of Peru. That was the birth of Lazos Solidarios.
During 2010, they worked in the childhood leukemia unit of Antonio Lorena Hospital, a hospital in Cusco for people who need primary care, mainly farmers. They organized playful activities for children and their parents. Yusef also developed activities that would encourage blood donation. Little by little, they made strides in their efforts to support the hospital’s leukemia unit.
This year, Yusef found himself in a difficult situation at a hospital in Lima. Children from Cusco had to travel to Lima to do PCR tests to ensure their cancer treatment was working properly. These children were living at the hospital because they couldn’t afford to pay for accommodation in Lima. Some of these patients were working by selling candies at the hospital’s entrance and corridors.
Yusef and his team had to address the situation. They decided to make the 20-hour car-ride journey to transfer the samples themselves from Cusco to Lima as many times as necessary. Yusef has also started the process to transport biological samples by airway, currently being considered by the Peruvian Congress.
Meanwhile, Lazos Solidarios continues to fulfill its mission, working in favor of prevention and promotion against cancer and bridging the cancer divide to bring dignity and hope in the face of cancer.
Vicky started working at the Mat Foundation in 2012, and since then she has been in close contact with local associations, patients, and physicians. Currently, Vicky is working as Local Program Coordinator for Argentina, Peru, and Ecuador. She is based in Buenos Aires and has a psychology background. In her free time, Vicky likes to take photos and cook.
All of us at The Max Foundation are wholly committed to maximizing every opportunity to collaborate and build new partnerships on behalf of the patients we serve in low resource settings. We are excited to move onward to a new chapter with innovative opportunities to expand our impact. We hope you will see a place for yourself to join us in this effort to close the cancer divide!
To celebrate the launch of our website, we hosted a celebration at Max HQ, which included a little friendly competition! We created a digital scavenger hunt on our website to see who knew our website the best. Test your knowledge about themaxfoundation.org and see how quickly you can complete the quiz!
Being a patient or I better call myself and others as a Spartan, someone who is fighting for something each and every day.” –Thilip Kumar Ragavan
We first met Thilip Kumar Ragavan in May 2014. He was a young chronic myeloid leukemia Spartan in the patient workshop at Hospital Ampang and was newly diagnosed with CML at that time, but the smile never left his face. Bright, vibrant, energetic, and positive – that’s Thilip.
