The town's dependance on a once-booming fishing industry is rapidly changing to a dependance on tourism. A big El Nino in 1989 caused much grief for the town, which was isolated for 15 days, but it also created a beautiful beach which is now popular with surfers year-round.

As social work students, we were mostly working with women in the community, and we met an amazing couple who had started a small NGO (Non-governmental Organization, or not-for-profit organization) to try and help the people in the community in various ways. My friend and I spent the rest of our time in Peru living and working with them, working and researching what the most pressing needs in the community were. What we discovered from interviewing Mancorians was that the people in town were concerned about the lack of affordable/accessible health care, unemployment, alcohol and drug addiction and domestic violence.

When I returned from my trip, I began discussions with my partner Josh, a Toronto Paramedic, and with a few close friends about starting a not-for-profit organization in Canada to help this under-serviced community in Peru. The most important thing for me was to be able to provide assistance to the people of Mancora as they saw fit, and not to impose my own ideals on them. The people we worked with last year seemed to feel strongly that having accessible medical care was an urgent need in their community, so this is where we focused most of our energy and resources for our first year projects.