About Us

Our Mission

Pemón Health Inc. connects passionate college students from across the country with indigenous Pemón villagers in an effort to improve community health in a sustainable and cost-effective way.

Our Approach

Pemón Health aims to improve community wellbeing by giving interested students the opportunity to live in the village of Urimán, Venezuela and work with local Pemón leaders for three months at a time, where they will together engage in an effort to design, implement, and provide funding for innovative and sustainable projects that improve health.

History

Founded in 2007, Pemón Health Inc. began as a collaborative effort between Swarthmore College students, healthcare professionals, and local leaders in Urimán to improve health conditions in Pemón communities.

During the summer of 2008, with full support and approval of government leaders, village leaders, as well as the medical doctor working at the clinic – eleven students from three different colleges lived and worked alongside the indigenous Pemón people to help implement strategies designed to improve community health.

Successes include setting up a sustainable and low cost waste-management and recycling program, initiating a health-education program at the local school, distributing mosquito nets, donated shoes, and food, and conducting research in order to determine how Pemón Health can better serve the villages. Students interested in medicine assisted the village doctor with medical emergencies and vaccinations.

Today, members of Pemón Health travel to Urimán and surrounding communities every summer to both maintain successful projects and begin new programs to continue improving community health.

Members

The membership of Pemón Health includes students from Swarthmore College, Haverford College, Bowdoin College, California Institute of Technology, University of Pittsburgh, University of Illinois, University of Notre Dame, and Indiana University.

Eugene M. Lang ’38 and the Board of Managers of Swarthmore College created the Swarthmore Project Pericles Fund in 2005. The purpose of the Fund is to support groups of Swarthmore students who propose and implement social and civic action projects whose scope and sustainability will advance solutions for the issues in question and also promote recognition of students' motivation and capability to address such major issues effectively.