A bio-pic of Paola Buonacara was published in the recent issue of Archives of Internal Medicine and it is indeed a study on the life history of a Peruvian tall height woman. Her great-grandparents were from the highlands of Peru and as a result, Buonacara spent a lot of time in the highlands of that country during her early childhood. Her family was settled at the foot of the Andean ranges and she grew up surrounded by people from diverse origins such as Tambomachay, Marques and Inca. Her educational attainments were almost restricted to primary education before she entered a boarding school in Lima and later, in her bid to be a doctor, she went on a world-wide research mission, which was also accompanied by a stint as a clerk in a hospital.
When Paola Buonacara was finally chosen as the physical education secretary of the Central University School of Medicine in Peru, no one could have guessed that this would be the beginning of a long and fascinating story. Buonacara’s educational path led her to specialize in pediatrics, family medicine and nutrition before she decided to combine the interests of her varied experiences into a more focused area of medicine. In her role as the nutritionist, her first task was to design a working group that would include nutritionists from different regions of Peru and the health practitioners belonging to different institutions and health organizations of the country. Her aim was to build up a network of professionals who could act as the voice of health in rural areas, where most people were still familiar with traditional healing methods.
The importance of education as a key component of any institution has never been so important as it is today. Buonacara understood the need for women and men to work together in order to improve the quality of life for the entire population, as the success of any venture relies not only on the entrepreneur but also on the people who he or she has become close to. Her efforts did pay off when the Peruvian government and various foundations provided grants to support her educational projects. Today, Paola Buonacara is proud to say that the “Heightened Height Program” has achieved its goal of installing nine schools in thirty-two districts throughout Peru.