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 International Mission Teams: 2014 Team Members Needed in Ecuador!Please join us in helping the children of Ecuador. SIFAT offers you that opportunity now! We need team members on several of our scheduled teams to Ecuador this year. Below, you will find dates for teams that need additional members and a summary of the project. We also have weeks available if you are interested in leading a new team from your church, school or community. Please contact Peggy Walker, SIFAT team coordinator, at walkerp@sifat.org or 256.396.2015 if you are interested in joining or leading a team in 2014.  This year, SIFAT teams will return to Villa Flora to begin work on the third floor of Pastor Rafael and Anita’s church. Teams built the first two floors in 2009 and 2010. Current 2014 teams needing members:
More 2014 teams still needed: We still need an additional five (5) construction/VBS teams or medical teams between August and November of this year. Ecuador: First 2013 Medical TeamLast week, we posted about this year’s first international mission team from the Auburn University Schools of Building Science and Nursing. You can read about the construction part of the team working in Puengasí here. Just as a reminder, Jeff Etheridge of Auburn University Photographic Services documented the trip. In case you missed our updates on Facebook, here are links to the Facebook albums Jeff posted: Quito, Ecuador, Building Science & Nursing Team, Middle of the World, Nursing team in Marianitas, Building Science team in Puengasí (you can find all of the photos posted below and more in these albums!).  Before leaving Miller Hall, the team along with friends, faculty members and families joined to pray for their trip and those they would be serving. The medical component of the team served in Marianitas with SIFAT graduate Pastor Mario. These nursing, pharmacy and nursing practitioner students and faculty held a women’s health clinic. Not only did the women have physical exams, but they also attended an educational seminar taught by the nursing students. Of course, the team also held VBS for the project’s children and some children from the community. Ecuador: First 2013 team returns!Our first team of the year spent their spring break from Auburn University serving the communities of Puengasí and Marianitas in Quito, Ecuador. The Schools of Nursing and Building Science took a combined team of 35 students and faculty, including three pharmacy students and a pharmacy alumna. This year, Jeff Etheridge of Auburn University Photographic Services took photos and video of the team. In case you missed our updates on Facebook, here are links to the Facebook albums Jeff posted: Quito, Ecuador, Building Science & Nursing Team, Middle of the World, Nursing team in Marianitas, Building Science team in Puengasí (you can find all of the photos posted below and more in these albums!).  On Sunday, the Auburn University Schools of Nursing and Building Science attended church at Agua de Vida and took a tour of Mama Yoli’s House, both of which were built by SIFAT teams. In this post, we’ll focus on the building science component that served in Puengasí, an urban neighborhood of Quito. SIFAT teams have worked in here for the past two years building an addition SIFAT graduate Pastor Oswaldo’s church. This addition will be used for their after school programs and community outreach. In a later post, we will share about the nursing team’s women’s clinic held at SIFAT graduate Pastor Mario’s church in Marianitas. |
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