Fr Raymond Portelli, of Nadur, who is also a medical doctor, is in Malta visiting his family and benefactors after a year taking care of COVID-19 patients in Iquitos, Peru, where he has been working for the past 27 years.

During the current pandemic crisis, Fr Raymond organised a fund-raising activity and was able to purchase four medical oxygen plants and medicines to help the poor of the Peruvian Amazon.

Fr Portelli is the parish priest of St Martín de Porres parish, with a population of 18,000 people. Around a fifth of his parishioners are middle-class, but the vast majority are poor, with around a tenth living in extreme poverty. Households do have running water and electricity, but many live in simple wooden shacks on dirt roads.

Though he is based in the city, Fr Portelli regularly ventures outside the parish to provide religious and medical services to isolated communities along the Momón River.

Travelling by boat to reach a number of tiny villages, with the most distant one 12 hours away, Fr Portelli encounters a completely different reality.

Fr Portelli will be returning to Saint Martin de Porres parish later this month. While thanking those who supported him during the COVID-19 crisis, he can be contacted for further help through WhatsApp 0051 965764816.