Wellness

PeaceMeals facilitates human wellness & vitality through nourishing foods and creative, cathartic dinner parties. The curriculum combines the science of nutritional healing & the philosophy of group therapy. With greater capacity, the program could also incorporate healthy environments. We could set up PM spaces– gardens, kitchens, and eventually homes– where participants could find solace & healing with others who have been through similar traumas. This would increase PM's quality & sustainability, as these environments could be training spaces for participants to facilitate their own PMs.

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Isolated indigenous communities in the Amazon receive primary and preventive health care from the government. Serious cases and elective surgeries depend on moving patients to distant medical centers. In the region, there is a high incidence of equatorial cataract, pterygium, hernias. Only the most severe cases are treated, and the waiting line is long. There are many difficulties related to moving the indigenous and their families to urban centers, which are very different from their natural habitat. There are hundreds of people drawn from social productive life for not having access to relatively simple surgical procedures. EDS, through the mobile surgical center's social technology, has transformed this reality with surgical expeditions, specialized medical care to the geographically isolated indigenous population.

Partnerships involved in the expeditions' logistics: SESAI, FUNAI, Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts (DSEI), local municipalities, Ministry of Defence, the Brazilian Air Force, the Amazon Military Command, Leaderships of the indigenous community treated. All these partners contribute directly to facilitate the care provided in the community, from planning to execution. Also, from the point of view of promoting the work and cause, we have strong support of the national press and we already have international repercussions, with media vehicles such as "The Economist"

Mission: Bring specialized medical care, especially surgery, to the indigenous and riverside population that live geographically isolated, with great quality of service and responsible management.
Vision: Create a reference model for specialized medical care to populations that are geographically isolated. Associação Expedicionários da Saúde / EDS is a Brazilian non-profit organization created in 2003 by a group of volunteer doctors, that aims to bring specialized medicine, especially surgical care, to indigenous peoples who live isolated in the Brazilian Amazon. It is a complementary service to health care public programs. It aims to prevent the patient and his family from traveling to urban centers, which is not always feasible.

EDS' intention with its Social Technology is to put an end to the surgical demand of the Indigenous and Riverside Populations that live isolated from major medical centers in the Brazilian Amazon. The results achieved to date, the credibility and visibility of the project, demonstrate that we are on the right track. But this is an action that involves medical infrastructure, equipment and complex logistics, which requires the need for Expanding and Strengthening Partnerships.

Indigenous populations isolated from the major medical centers in the Brazilian Amazon. At first, patients that require clinical and/or surgical care in the specialties of the medical expeditionaries team will be selected. Since February 2004, the organization provided 20,944 clinical treatments and performed 3,569 surgeries to indigenous peoples from the Brazilian Amazon. Also, in 2010, after the earthquake in Haiti, EDS sent 7 SOS Haiti teams, having performed 359 surgeries and 1,407 outpatient treatments.

Mobilizing opinion leaders, identifying the region, diagnosis, demand profile are activities carried out with close involvement and support from SESAI, FUNAI, Special Indigenous SanitaryDistricts (DSEI), local municipalities and indigenous community leaders. Among the actions of sensitization and mobilization, there are partnerships with local health agents trained to perform screening (surgical cases selection and consultations). Patients are informed of the date when the collective surgical effort will be held and partners provide transportation and lodging.

There are three annual expeditions to perform: surgeries, guidance for pre and postoperative care, special diagnosis and referral of the cases with which the team is not prepared to act in loco. Those expeditions take place in communities that have some structure to receive a large amount of people (patients, families, physicians, and logistics). Besides the general coordinators, there are coordinators per specialty: ophthalmology, general surgery, pediatric, orthopedics. The medical school at UNICAMP - University of Campinas, provides volunteer doctors, who orient the local teams on how to identify surgical cases in the offered specialties. Assessment, during and post expedition, of the results and the work processes involving all stakeholders.

There are similar projects operating in the region, particularly in primary health care, examinations and consultations. Part of our processes have been adapted from the experience of some of these projects, but over the years we had to seek our own model, proper for our size, profile and customized to the reality we face in north of the country.Partners: medical volunteers, SESAI-Special Secretariat for indigenous health care, FUNAI - National Indian Foundation, DSEIs - Special Indigenous Sanitary Districts, local municipalities, Ministry of Defence, the Brazilian Air Force, the Amazon Military Command, Leaderships in the indigenous community.

achievement of the 26th EXPEDITION in August in the Yanomami region, the 27th November EXPEDITION in Raposa Serra do Sol. Have 90% of local staff trained and qualified by EDS to perform the patients' screening and specialized diagnosis. Continue with the SOS Haiti expeditions - so far we have conducted seven expeditions in 2010 with a total of 359 orthopedic and trauma surgeries and 1,407 outpatient treatments. Our biggest challenge in 2013 is to develop partnerships that contribute to the financial sustainability of our organization and the continuity of expeditions.
However, this is an action that involves medical infrastructure, equipment and complex logistics. Because of this, Expanding and Strengthening Partnerships is needed.

Develop diagnosis methodologies that can fasten up the process of identifying demand. Be able to act in two expeditions simultaneously and occasionally in situations of humanitarian aid. Enhance intersectorial alliances mechanisms. Expand partnership with the private sector. Improve internal Management and governance with specialized consultant agency (Deloitte)

Support and credibility together with strategic partners in the public and private spheres, recognition of our work by the press and thought leaders. Significant results, being that until November 2012, 24 expeditions were carried out: a total of 3,569 surgeries and 20,944 clinical treatments. Improvement of internal management, governance processes and approved social technology

EDS' intention with its Social Technology is to give an end to the surgical demand of the Indigenous Populations that live isolated from major medical centers in the Amazon. For this, we need support from institutional partners and financial resources to enable our expeditions.

Perform three expeditions in 2013 - the one in April is already confirmed. Have 90% of the local staff trained and qualified by EDS, to conduct patient screenings and specialized diagnosis. Have enough resources to perform three expeditions in 2014. In a medium-term, continue with SOS Haiti expeditions. So far, we have conducted seven expeditions in 2010, with a total of 359 orthopedic and trauma surgeries and 1,407 outpatient treatments and we are seeking partners to enable the creation of an orthopedics-specialized hospital.

In the short term, we will define success by having at least 1/3 of the employees at a given workplace using our service regularly (order at least one week's worth of meals per month). We will also define success if we're profitable by the end of a year (because then we can reinvest in ourselves and spread to more regions and create more impact). Ultimately, our true measure of success will be whether we are actually changing a large component of our customers' diets using behavioral assessments. If 1/3 of our customers think they cook at home more often because of our product, or if they're eating healthier more often because of our product, we are succeeding. Of course, creating a product that people love, developing customer loyalty, leaving our employer partners satisfied, and proving that our model both has high social impact and a large return are all important parts of success.

In the long term, we want to rapidly expand to many different regions; we will be successful in terms of scale if we are growing and have many production facilities to service many customers. In regards to proving our health impact, ultimately we want to create a large-scale study that assesses whether the companies who use our service actually have healthier employees. That will help us validate that we're fulfilling our mission, and that will also be a very powerful competitive advantage we have over potential competitors that emerge in this space.

Immediately for our month-long pilot, we are using before-and-after questionnaires to assess behavior. We will be asking them how often they cook at home, how often they eat meals at dinner time that aren't home cooked meals, and how much of a hassle they find cooking. We will also ask them how important it is for them to eat healthy meals (meals with lots of fruits, vegetables, whole grains and not much sodium and sugar). After the pilot, we will see if these people cooked more because of our product and if the types of people who were using it were those who weren't all that concerned with healthy eating already. As indicated in the previous question, we will ultimately measure success if we can clearly show that we made the employees healthier at the companies we partner with. We are aiming for 1/3 of the company to sign up with us, and 1/3 of our customers to gain healthier habits because of our offering.

Since we are a double-bottom line company, we are aiming for both high impact and a high financial return so that we can grow quickly. Business metrics, like profit margin, customer retention, customer satisfaction, and number of locations opened will also be important. We are aiming for a profit margin of 20% (higher than the average for the food service industry) and we want to have 20 production facilities by the end of our 5th year. We aim to pay our employees a living wage as well, so the quality of life of our employees will be important to us; we want to pay them at least $10/ hour with benefits. We don't think we can be successful unless we treat our customers well.

We will recruit new members for our venture by first assessing the skills we need. Immediately we will need people in sales and operations, and we would like a dietitian or a MD on board. Already I've been in talks with some of these people from attending conferences with them and being connected to them. After having a successful pilot in hand, it will be much more compelling for top-quality talent to join me.

New leaders will be appointed through a merit-based promotion system; employees will be offered much autonomy and those who will perform best will be in line to be new leaders. We will consult with our board to help transfer leadership when the founding members want to leave the team.

In all honesty, we would like more assistance with this part of our business; we have very little experience with this and are seeking advice in this area.

After seeking initial investment, this shouldn't be a challenge for us because we will be creating revenue from day one, and we hope to have positive cash flow within a year.

Healthy environment facilitates effective practice of aerotherapy, as green vegetation cover emits oxygen that we need for respiration, and absorbs a waste gas from our respiration called carbon dioxide. Clean sources of fuel and energy instead of wood and kerosene respectively curbs pollution and boosts intake of fresh air. Creation of green parks with ample shades for urban settlers would be ideal for undertaking outdoor aerotherapy since most urban dwellers lack spacious compounds. Diversifying crop production to sustain supplies of nutrient rich food choices meets increased future demand.

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