Mary Bloom Center serves the needs of the underserved indigenous poor in Puno, Peru.
MBC’s primary focus is to provide direct material aid in the form of medicine, food, clothes and educational scholarships as well as to help strengthen families by educating health professionals and young married couples in fertility appreciation and is associated with WOOMB International to help teach Natural Family Planning.
Because of their extreme poverty, the parents of fourteen-year-old Diego Apazo Navarro could not obtain medical attention for the young teen's debilitating eye disorder. Environmental irritants from brick making aggravated Diego's Keratoconus Actinic Keratosi, a rare eye condition causing degeneration of the cornea and threatening his eyesight. The Mary Bloom Center coordinated and provided funds for his diagnosis and treatment. In December of 2009, Diego underwent eye surgery and is now on the road to recovery.
Vincentian Daughter of Charity, Sister Maritza, director of the Puno orphanage for girls received an infant, sick with enterocolitis necrozante perinatal, a condition developed by infants who are fed cow's milk. The baby's mother died in childbirth. With aid from the Mary Bloom Center, the baby who the sisters called "Francisca" received treatment for severe malnutrition and now, at age 9, is a healthy, active and happy young girl. Here Francisca literally "hangs out" with MBC president Father Phillip Bloom.
Francisco Condori
Francisco Condori, whose infectious smile never seems to wane, suffers from congenital vertebral paralysis, a form of spina bifida which has disabled his legs and reduced his kidney function, causing chronic urinary tract infection. In 1999 the Mary Bloom Center funded his care and treatment which cost a mere $200 in Lima, Peru at that time. Today he is a thriving teenager, still with his characteristic smile.
Please visit our Special Events to learn more about our Second Annual Dinner Auction.
