July 2022: Serving Breakfast in AtucuchoEditor’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. To read previous updates about SIFAT Doctor in your House/The Golden Bread, click here. Written by Marie Lanier Narváez, Promotions and Marketing Coordinator Slowly, our car creeps up a steep mountain, scraping speed breakers while we reminisce about our first visits to Atucucho, a neighborhood in Quito, Ecuador, where SIFAT has been serving for more than 20 years. As we arrive at our destination, a nondescript concrete building among a row of buildings in various stages of construction, we see a line of people winding down the next hill. Dr. Roberto Contreras, Tom Corson, Peggy Walker and I climb out of the car to choruses of Buenos Dias! as we make our way to the door. We are quickly wrapped up in the arms of Ledy Sanchez, a SIFAT graduate and the driving force behind SIFAT’s work in this area. Ledy guides us into a bustling kitchen, full of ladies cutting vegetables and stirring gigantic, steaming pots. Smiles are abundant, and the smells are vibrant with a breakfast drink in one pot with cinnamon and anise and the beginnings of chicken soup in another. These women prepare meals for about 400 children and 80 elderly every day. Ledy tells us she starts baking fresh bread every morning at 4 a.m. But we do not have time to keep exploring this kitchen, lifting lids and chatting with the ladies, because that line of people needs their breakfast.  Ledy is a SIFAT graduate, who has led our projects in Atucucho, Quito, Ecuador for many years. She is an driving force in her community. February 2021: SIFAT Doctor in your House 2020 ReportEditor’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. This month’s article is the report submitted by Dr. Roberto and Monica Contreras about our programs in Quito, Ecuador, in 2020. To see all of the updates from SIFAT Doctor in your House/The Golden Bread, click here. Written by Dr. Roberto and Monica Contreras, SIFAT Ecuador Directors
 A family receives a food donation that will help them survive the effects of the pandemic in Quito, Ecuador.
Isaiah was born on May 5, 2020, in the midst of a worldwide pandemic. He was completely malnourished at birth because his mother did not have the resources for a good diet during her pregnancy. His first cry would not be his only cry. He continually was crying from his birth until August, because he was hungry. In Ecuador, 1 of 4 children less than 5 years old is chronically malnourished. Isaiah was that child. Malnutrition limits a child’s full development and leaves traces for a lifetime. Children with malnutrition are more likely to become adults with low stature, fewer educational achievements and lower financial incomes during adulthood. This not only impacts the individual, but also affects the social and economic development of communities and our country. Because of donations given for SIFAT Doctor in your House, we have been able to provide nutritional reinforcement since August when Dr. Roberto learned about Isaiah’s situation. He will not become a sad statistic. Ecuador: SIFAT Doctor in your House – October UpdateClick here to learn more about SIFAT Doctor in your House program. June update July update September update 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 During the pandemic, our SIFAT team members and donors have stepped in to support the communities in which we serve in Ecuador in two vital areas—medical care and food. Many are struggling to survive because of the effects of lockdown and COVID-19. Recently, Ledy Sanchez, SIFAT graduate and leader of our Atucucho project, sent a letter to us on behalf of her community. She is taking care of 80 of the most vulnerable elderly by providing hot breakfasts each week.  SIFAT graduate Ledy is taking care of 80 of the most vulnerable elderly in Atucucho. On weekdays, Ledy and her team distribute hot breakfasts to those who would otherwise go hungry. 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 |
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