We will be working with an organization called Hogar de Cristo. They have been here for almost 40 years and are very well-established. It is a Catholic-based organization but they are still excited to work with some "Mormon" nurses! :) They actually gave us all rosaries, which was super cool. They focus on housing, health, microcredit, and education. All their programs are very well structured and foster self-reliance of the people. They only work with the "poorest of the poor" so for Ecuador that means only families who make less than a dollar a day per family member.
They started with housing and that is definitely still their largest program. I snapped a few photos of their large "planta" or house factory. They can make a house in just a few hours! It was incredible to watch these skilled workers throw a house together in no time at all. The families actually pay for their own homes entirely by making payments of $15-20 each month for three years. Also, they must pay for their own land before getting a house.
Their microcredit work is also quite amazing. They make groups of 10-15 women and give them a small loan. Each woman must pay her part. If they do not pay, there is a head woman who deals with them. They have found this method to be quite effective! The group of women meets and decides what they want to invest in. The incredible thing is that the loans are paid back 98% of the time!
We, obviously, are working with the health part of the organization. We met Monday to find out what Veronica (head of the health part) wanted us to do. One huge project is screening the children of various schools for illnesses and malnutrition. We are actually hoping to use the data we collect as a baseline in a study regarding the use of soy milk in their diet. About 50% of the children in the community are mildly or severely malnourished.
The other project we're working on is forming support groups for those with chronic conditions like diabetes or hypertension. Many people do not go to the doctor for chronic illnesses because they don't want to pay or don't see the need. They rarely understand the disease or what they can do to prevent complications and improve their health. Veronica wants us to go door-to-door screening a list the doctor has prepared of those at risk. We're also going to teach their volunteers how to check blood sugar and blood pressure so that they can do screenings on their own in the future. I think it's a great idea of a way to help these people and increase their knowledge of health. Knowledge really is power! If they understood their diseases and had a support group of friends to encourage them, changing health habits would be that much easier.
Don't worry Mom we ended up not riding in the back of the truck :)
At FHE trying passionfruit with Sonya and roomie Katie!
Dinner at "Cafe Rio"- no joke that's what it's called! The owner's son actually goes to BYU so maybe that's where they got the idea. I don't mind though because the food was delicious!
Here's the URL for Hogar de Cristo if you're curious....
Thanks for reading!
1 comment:
Sounds like you guys are doing important stuff! good luck with everything. It was fun to see pictures of you guys and I am salivating looking at you eating that delicious mexican food! lucky schmuck. love you lots beautiful
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