Paz Holendasa Visit

Photo: Our team touring the new Paz Holendasa hospital

Photo: The beautiful ascetic appeal of the hospital

Photo: Arequipa has some 350 days of sunshine each year, an outdoor reception area makes sense and is really inviting to the children and their parents

Photo: As a pediatric hospital, Paz Holendasa keeps everything very whimsical

"If they don't work, they don't eat"

Father Alex asked Ben and I to film some of the activities around the Mission over the past couple of days. We were getting shots of the team integrating into the Mission's activities and taking general film of the various programs of the Church. Needed to get a few shots of the clinic, I asked Adon (Father Alex's right hand man) to drive me down for about ten minutes of filming.

After completing my assigned footage, I walked out to find Adon waiting by the van to drive me back up to the Mission's volunteer house. "Do you think it would be okay if we took this lady back to her house?" Adon said to me - pointing to a woman sitting in her wheelchair only about 3 meters away. So, Adon and I loaded her and her son into the back of the van and drove her to one of the poorest invasion communities in Alto Cayma - an area that sits in a canyon just off the runway of the airport.

The woman had been at the Mission for the monthly CFCA, Christian Foundation for Children and Aging, food distribution program and she had no money to take a taxi back home. When we got to her house, a small concrete block home with the aluminum sided roof, Adon began to tell me of their story. She is in her thirties and suffers from severe rheumatoid arthritis. Unable to walk, she lives most of her days in a wheelchair. She has three children, a boy aged 10 and two girls aged 13 and 14. Her husband left the family almost two years ago. Her only source of income is to sell food on the side of the road for a few soles a day. Her oldest child has left school to work full time for the family. Adon told me that he is concerned that the other two children will be leaving school very soon as well.

On the drive back to the Mission Adon told me that he felt the lack of educational opportunities and the need for families to have their children go to work very early in their educational careers, is one of the main reasons that people in the community of Alto Cayma get "stuck" in poverty. He told me that there is a constant drain of young people leaving school with very few formal skills and little education - and this is devastating to the community. Adon went on to say that for many of the people living in the poorer communities of Alto Cayma - "if they don't work, they don't eat."

Alto Cayma - Our final day of activities

Today is our last full day of project activities. Dr. Bob has taken the team up to the Mission to get started on their morning activities (e.g. clinic, home visits, painting, food preparation and delivery and daycare). Ben and I are running around completing a few errands in the city. This afternoon we will be meeting with one of our partner NGOs in Arequipa and touring their new pediatric hospital.

Paz Holendasa is the brainchild of a nurse from Holland who came to Peru some 15-years ago and saw a great need for maxio-facial procedures for cleft palates. Working with her partners in the European Union, she pulled together a number of wonderful projects over the years. Culminating in the successful development and completion of a multi-specialty care pediatric hospital in Arequipa. It is an amazing facility with state of the art operative theaters and patient encounter areas. Most of all it is a gift to the people of Peru. A clinic and hospital where the highest quality healthcare services can be delivered to the poorest of the poor for minimal to no money.

We are taking the team to tour the Paz Holendasa facility to show them how much one person can accomplish with a focused dream and an unending passion. I will post pictures from our adventure this afternoon.

Through the Eyes of Child

Photo: The lovely children of the Alto Cayma Daycare

When Father Alex first came to Alto Cayma he was alarmed by the number of children that died from very preventable accidents. Children were being left in small 3-meter by 3-meter homes while their parents spent the entire day away in the city looking for work. Many times the children would, looking for water or something to drink, get into a noxious substance. Father said he found himself burying child after child and knew he had to find a solution.

The solution was to build a daycare center. Quickly his program grew - from a small room in a small house to a four room school with a playground, kitchen and complete bathroom (with stalls for bathing the children everyday). Today the daycare is a full fledged preschool, certified by the Peruvian Ministry of Education. There are five certified and fully credentialed teachers, daycare services from 7 am until 7 pm (to match the long work hours of the people living in Alto Cayma) and weekly medical and dental examinations. The school has over 100 children enrolled.

This morning I was very preoccupied with the amount of work I have on my "plate." I knew I needed to get on-line and un-burry myself from my hundreds of emails. Equally, my "To Do" list seems to be multiplying before my eyes. As luck would have it, the power was off at the Mission compound and I could not get on-line. As such, I decided to follow Ben (HBI's Director of Operations) as he did a bit of filming for a small documentary we are developing for Father Alex.

The minute we got into the daycare we were surrounded by children screaming "visitante," which means visitor in English. They swarmed us and enveloped us with hugs and kisses. For about 30-minutes we had a constant succession of kids coming up asking for hugs or wanting to hold our hands. I quickly began to realize that all of my preoccupation to work and my "To Do" list meant nothing when I looked into the eyes of these lovely children.

I began to realize how important it is for me to be fully present to the life of our little girl and how much impact that "presence" will have on her life. I realized once again that my greatest gift is not my ability to churn out email after email . . . but commitment to be a loving, compassionate person.

A Mellow Day with a Sobering Story

Photo: A quick nap in the mid-day sun for a hard working team

Today was a mellow day for our team. We had volunteers working in the clinic, a few team members helping to paint the main community kitchen, we sent a team on home visits with Maria the Social Worker and helped in the community kitchen to prepare meals for delivery to the poorest members of the Alto Cayma Community.

People were busy, but no where near the frenetic pace of week one. In fact, some of our team members even stole some time for a late afternoon nap.

Tonight at dinner, the team members who went out with Maria on home visits told a sobering story for all of us to hear. While walking back to the volunteer house from a home visit, the team was suddenly scurried off the road by a racing truck. Maria told them that the truck was the Peruvian National Police who were going to a home to remove a 4-year old girl from the care of her parents because it had been reported that she was being severely beaten. They went on to tell us that Maria described a harrowing rate of spousal violence in the area. A violence rate that was only slightly ahead of the violence faced by children in their homes.

Maria told them that many people are reticent to report the violence they experience in their homes because of the fear they have for corrupt police. Maria told the team that the greatest advocates the community have is the Church. Stating that Father Alex is often called to the homes of people experiencing severe violence because he is the only person they fully trust. She told them that many people have no one else in their lives they can turn to for support.

Tonight, as I sit in the lobby of our hotel - I am haunted by the thought of young lives under such pain and trauma. I am thankful for the strength that Father Alex brings to his work everyday. And most of all, I am hopeful that we can continue to work together to end the suffering of people living in such abject circumstances.

Peace Corps Peru

Photo: Peace Corps volunteers leading a "networking" breakfast.

This morning Ben and I went to a meeting convened by the Peace Corps volunteers in the Arequipa area. This is a once per month meeting that brings together the Peace Corps representatives from around the Province of Arequipa to discuss their programs and projects. The meeting also includes other NGOs and volunteer organizations working in the Province.

The goal of the meeting was simple: creating connections and opportunities for organizations to collaborate. This is a great opportunity for HBI to meet new organizations doing health related work in Arequipa and the Colca Valley. In fact, we are going to a event on Saturday with a small NGO working with street youth in one of the pueblos jovenes of the city.

Networking, bridge building, collaborating - this is what HBI is all about. We fully recognize that we are most powerful through our common and combined efforts.

"You came here"

Photo: A standing clinic

Photo: Ben's new friend

Photo: Girasoles at dusk

Our last clinic day in Ica was an amazing experience for everyone. Our team collectively decided that we needed to shift our clinic to the desperately impoverished area of Girasoles. This decision was one that would come back to serve us well.

HBI's Director of Operations is charged with the unforgiving job of saying no to the many extra people who show up for the clinics. Sometimes this task is made easy by the fact that our team can fit in a few extra patients or the fact that we are serving in a smaller community; but most of the time, his job is really difficult.

During clinic on Wednesday, Ben politely told a woman that we would be unable to see her and that she should come back the next day. She told Ben that her job made it impossible for her to get to the outreach clinic at 4 or 5 a.m. (as many of the people had to see us) and that she would only be able to get to see us after 6 p.m. He again, politely apologized and explained that all of our equipment and supplies had been packed up and we could just not see her. This is really hard on Ben.

On Thursday, in the sand and dust of the desperately impoverished area of Girasoles, Ben felt a tug on his shirt and turned to see his friend from the day before. He explained that she had a smile on her face from ear-to-ear and said to him with great glee, "you came here, you really came here to see us."

We saw her that night in the cold of the desert moonlight - and it was a great day indeed.