The Brigada de Rescate y Esperanza (BRE) or Rescue & Hope Brigade in English, is a solidarity and social aid crusade, formed entirely by volunteers of the PAMS Jorge Arévalo Mission, the graduates of 1990 Colegio San Agustín in Iquitos and the Rotary Club of Iquitos, to provide assistance as the Loreto region was in a COVID-19 crisis at the end of April 2020. Initially, the BRE's efforts were focused on the city of Iquitos, and the region of Loreto, but due to demand it has expanded to serve the regions of San Martín, Amazonas, Ucayali, Cajamarca, Arequipa, Lima and most recently Puno.
The objectives of BRE are:
Remote medical tele-consults for patients:
Telecharapa (tele-consult) service for remote care by volunteer medical staff of various specialties from the United States and other countries. The volunteer medical staff performs daily check-ins and monitoring of patients via WhatsApp. The service coverage has reached more than 3,000 people.
Medical consults for physicians:
Providing remote direct support to local medical personal by volunteer medical specialists (pulmonary, infectiologists, internal medicine, etc.)
Information and Education for the Public: Organizing weekly conferences by various specialists, medical and non-medical. Offering interviews in regional media, radio, TV, newspapers. Spreading information through the use of social networks.
Donations support and management material: Preparation and distribution of informational material for health personnel, receipt of donations, purchase and collection of protection material and medicines, logistics management and direct distribution to health centers and communities. More than $33,000 in donations have already been processed since the COVID emergency started.
Volunteers are needed to continue filling the requests from patients, medical staff, and communities. To join the BRE network, please contact Dr. Iracema Arevalo, director of the Jorge Arevalo Mission at