September: SIFAT Doctor in your House Helps in EcuadorClick here to learn more about SIFAT Doctor in your House program. Editor’s Note: Each month, we mail an article with our contribution statements to the previous month’s donors. Click here to download a PDF version. Written by Peggy Walker, International Team Coordinator There are times when our SIFAT mission teams must switch from development to relief. The current pandemic, more than ever before, is that time. International travel was halted; teams were forced to postpone trips. We were all told we would be safer at home. The reality of this condition made us all feel more vulnerable than ever before. Along with this reality, the need to serve was ever present, but the question was how? SIFAT found a way in Ecuador with our SIFAT Doctor in your House program.  Because of the support of our SIFAT Doctor in your House program, a youth in the Aida Leon church receives rice for his family from Pastor Wilson in Quito, Ecuador. Ecuador: SIFAT Doctor in your House – July UpdateClick here to learn more about SIFAT Doctor in your House program. Click here to read our June update about SIFAT Doctor in your House. Dear Doctor in your House supporters, Because you cared, hundreds of children and the elderly in SIFAT projects in Ecuador have not gone to bed hungry. Because you cared, so many who were unable to find medical care during this pandemic are able to talk to a doctor and have much needed medicines provided. Because of your generosity, the people we serve in Ecuador know they are not alone in this critical time. Thank you! Pastors in each of our projects have sent stories and photographs telling us about those who have no other place to turn. The coronavirus has spread quickly in Ecuador, and Quito has been on virtual lockdown for many months. There is no work, no government services and no food or medicines available for those in the communities in which we work with SIFAT teams. It really is a desperate time for most families living there. Dr. Roberto Contreras, SIFAT’s director in Ecuador, has been having teleconference calls with patients from a different project site each week. Our SIFAT graduate pastors and community leaders make sure those with the greatest need are the first to receive care, and at least one month of medicines are given to each patient. He also provides vitamins for the children who are malnourished and makes sure those who need specialists have referrals in place as soon as it’s possible to travel again in the city. Dr. Roberto has been especially attentive to the elderly, many of whom have dementia, ongoing medical conditions and no family to care for them.  Patients in the SIFAT Doctor in your House program receive much needed medications free of charge. To keep this program going through the end of 2020, visit www.sifat.org/sifatdoctorinyourhouse June 2020: SIFAT Doctor in Your House provides food and medical care SIFAT Ecuador director Dr. Roberto Contreras uses video conferences to provide virtual home visits to patients in our projects who currently do not have access to medical care. SIFAT Doctor in your House provides free medications for these patients.
Editor’s Note: Each month, we mail an article with our contribution statements to the previous month’s donors. Click here to download a PDF version. Written by Marie Lanier, Promotions and Marketing Coordinator Because of COVID-19, our international mission teams were forced to cancel all trips for 2020. SIFAT Ecuador director Dr. Roberto Contreras approached us with a plan that would let our team members and supporters still serve the people with whom we work, even during this time when we cannot physically be there. This idea became SIFAT Doctor in your House, a two-part approach to provide basic needs—food and medicine. (Click here to learn more about SIFAT Doctor in your House or to donate to this program) When they can find work, most people in these communities have part-time jobs that are considered informal by the government, which means they have no access to benefits or unemployment. In the best of times, they are just scraping by. When the government began taking extreme measures to protect its citizens from spreading coronavirus, these jobs were immediately lost. Until early June, a curfew started at 2 p.m., public transportation was shut down and those with cars were only allowed to drive one day each week. The only time anyone was allowed in public was to go to pharmacies or grocery stores. Hunger became very real in Ecuador: SIFAT Doctor in Your HouseDownload a PDF version to print and/or share. Dear friend of SIFAT, As I sit at my computer to write with so many thoughts about all we are missing this year, I see the faces of the children in our projects in Ecuador. I can almost feel their hugs and hear their laughter. Many of you would be preparing for your long awaited trip to serve alongside these people we have come to think of as family. Some of you have gone to Ecuador with SIFAT many times, letting this mission trip replace your relaxing summer vacations. For others, this would have been your first opportunity to serve in this beautiful country. For all who were planning to go and those who were supporting your efforts, I know you are wondering how are they living through these difficult times, and thinking what can we do now? From e-mails with our staff and pastors with whom we serve, I want to share the reality of their situation and also give you a way we can still make a difference and provide hope. I understand people are suffering here at home, and many do not know how they will rebuild their lives. But most of us have food to eat, and we can go to the hospital, even if we do not have insurance. We have stimulus checks, food banks and churches eager to help those in need. In Aida Leon, Villaflora and other poor areas in which we serve in Ecuador, they do not. Pastor Wilson and Anita and Pastor Rafael wrote that the families in their churches have no jobs, no food and certainly no medical care. These poor families depend upon sporadic work during the best of times, and many must take buses across town each day to find that work.  SIFAT’s director in Ecuador, Dr. Roberto Contreras reports of desperate conditions in Ecuador. The churches in our projects are trying to provide much needed food to the children and their families with whom we have served alongside for years. Medical Team Supplies Help Dr. Ruth NoemiEditor’s Note: Each month, we mail an article with our contribution statements to that month’s donors. Click here to download a PDF version. Written by SIFAT co-founder Sarah Corson An urgent call came to Benjo from Dr. Ruth Noemi Mamani in Quesimpuco, Bolivia. Because this is an isolated area, we had hope that the coronavirus would not reach this place, which Tom still calls “the end of the world.” But, a group of youth from Quesimpuco had gone to Chile and Argentina to find work. As the outbreak started, they rushed to get home, crossing the border illegally. They made it home, but brought the virus with them. Dr. Ruth Noemi did not have gloves, masks or protective gear for the health workers helping her.  Dr. Ruth Noemi leads a public health initiative in the Quesimpuco area. |
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