The Spanish NGO Manos Unidos has begun financing a food and health care program in the Peruvian Amazon to more than three thousand indigenous people who live in “extreme poverty” and make less than three dollars a day.

According to the AVAN news agency, the project has a budget of some $129,000 thanks to donations from parishes in Valencia.  The purpose of the effort is to provide instruction in the use of new agricultural technology and to improve hygiene to prevent disease in children and pregnant women.

The assistance will be given to twenty different indigenous communities that “are dedicated to raising livestock, operating booths at local fish markets and other small family businesses.”  Manos Unidos reports that in that region, “chronic child malnutrition affects 50% of children under the age of 3 and only 64% have received proper vaccinations.”

The program will be carried out in the area by Caritas Peru.