A Christmas Message from Father Alex

Father Alex sent this message to me the other night and I want to share his story of hope for the Holiday Season:

Once upon a time there lived a young man who did not believe in Jesus, Christmas, Church stuff, and so on. He declared himself as a non-believer but he was a nice good willing guy who never stepped back when somebody needed his help. One night, the 24^th of December he was walking down the road and it was just freezing. He was not interested in entering a church but it was the only place open where he could shelter himself from the cold. He said to himself “This is not bad at all, nice singing, beautiful lights, welcoming hugs and most important of all it is free and quite warm."

It did not take long for the preacher to appear and start his meditation on Christmas. It went something like this. “Some two thousand years ago there was a very generous and holy woman by the name of Mary who was asked for a big favor by God Himself. She was asked to deliver a baby who would be the savior of the world. She did not understand much of what was going on, but since it was God’s wish she thought that it should be ok to say yes. The baby was born and his name given, Jesus. Jesus grew up like a normal human being but very soon his profound and Godly wisdom started to call attention and started to gather crowds around him like nobody else was able to. So what was the attraction? Well he was courageous enough as to talk openly about love, justice, peace and a lot more; like loving the enemy, prostitutes and sinners to enter God’s kingdom before the high priests, blessed are the poor in spirit, think about your neighbors’ needs before your own, sell all your belongings and give it all to the poor, feed the hungry, heal the sick, cloth the naked, visit those in jail, and on, and on, and on… More over he did not only speak, he did in fact give sight to the blind, healed the crippled and the deaf, fed thousands with bread and fish, walked on water, stopped storms, he even gave life to the dead. On top of it all he gave his life as a ransom for the forgiveness of all human sin… and afterwards he rose from the dead. By the way he was not interested in decorated trees, special cakes or hot chocolate, special lights or fireworks, gifts and so on. He only came to teach us the way to live in peace with others and with ourselves. He came to tell us where he came from and where we are all going to… his Father and our Father. This is what it means to believe… to follow Jesus struggling daily for justice and peace. This is what gives sense to the joy and the celebration of Christmas the world over. A world that struggles every day to build justice and peace… in other words, to build God’s Kingdom on Earth. Happy Christmas."

The young man said to himself, “Perhaps I too believe then. Perhaps I too follow Jesus and all he said and did because I too help others with what I can every day.”

And as all the stories that start with “once upon a time”, the young man “lived happily ever after.”

May all of us too accept Jesus and live happily ever after. Happy Christmas!

Data Collection is Complete

The team is back in the U.S. and the data collection for the CARE III research project is completed. The team were able to complete 420 surveys over the course of 7-days of data collection. This is really great and will provide a good sample size for our research study.

The next step is to send the completed surveys to the University of North Carolina-Wilmington for compilation and data review. We hope to have the first sets of data evaluated sometime in the early Spring. Our goal is to submit our research for publication sometime in the fall of 2011.

Speaking of publishing data - we are submitting the research from our CARE I study for publication in the Journal of Health Care for the Poor and Underserved. Look for an article to run in late winter of 2011. That is if our submission is accepted for publication. Keep your fingers.

A very big thank you to all of the volunteers who helped with the CARE III data collection. You are amazing and we owe you so much. THANK YOU!

Keeping checking out the HBI Blog - big things are in the works for HBI in the coming months. Until then, thank you for all of your support.

Data Collection Day 4

Photo: The rural communities of the Colca Valley.

Photo: A beautiful old facade in the community of Yanque.

The team continues in the Colca Valley until Friday, November 12. Updates from our Director of Operations indicate that we are moving forward with visits to a total of 13 smaller villages in the valley. Ben tells me that things are going great and he feels we are more than meeting the expected (hoped for) numbers for the research project.

We should have a complete update on the progress of the CARE III Survey project early next week. Keep checking the Blog for updates.

Why study healthcare access in Peru?

Photo: The lunar landscape of the high Peruvian mountain communities.

Everyone we have talked with has a story about their inability to gain access to the healthcare services they self define as needing. Equally, our team has heard (for many years) that healthcare access, specifically access to medical providers and medical specialist, is really lacking in many parts of Peru. However, and this is the most critical part of the "why" we are doing research studies in Peru, few studies actually exist to support such anecdote or suspicion.

Our project is designed to gain a greater foothold in understanding the care delivery needs of isolated, marginalized and underserved communities. We want to take the anecdotes, the assumptions, and the beliefs that are pervasive and provide some firm data to better meet the evolving challenges of Peru.

With an expected 8% economic growth in the next year, Peru is a vastly changing environment. The Peru that HBI started working in some 17-years ago is a very different world. In an attempt to best meet the needs of underserved communities, we need to be continuously gaining a greater understanding of their needs and challenges.

Day 3 - CARE III

Photo: Dinner in Arequipa at "Tinto and Asado"

Photo: HBI's Peru Country Director - Daniel Bueno Rojas

I am back in Lima awaiting a flight to the U.S. - but the data collection continues. The team spent their morning hours surveying the principle Colca Valley town of Chivay. Our Director of Operations (Ben Grass) told me that things went great and they were able to survey the entire community.

The group will be surveying the rest of the week and hopes to complete 500 surveys. My fingers are crossed. The more surveys we can complete the greater the value of our research. At this point, we just need to keep plugging away. The data will speak for itself once we have it all collected.

I just had a really interesting meeting with Dr. Francisco Cisnero and our Peru Country Director (Dr. Daniel Bueno Rojas). Dr. Francisco, an ophthamologist who was trained in the Dominican Republic, just completed a fellowship training in Colombia in cataract procedures. His family has run a clinic in Lima (Nahui Clinic) for a number of years. They are one of the most respected ophthamology centers in all of Peru.

Francisco has taken over the directorship of an NGO that works with cataract and eye surgeries for impoverished communities. He wants to ensure that every patient who needs surgery in Peru can get the surgery - regardless of their ability to pay. He told me that it is assumed that on average there are 3,000 cataract cases per 1,000,000 patients. Ideally, a country should be able to absorb this 3,000 patient case load.

This "ideal" is predicted on having a fully trained and motivated workforce. In Chile, as Francisco told me, the medical community is able to attend to all of the eye surgery needs of their populous. In Peru and Bolivia, the number of cases that the medical system is able to handle is well below 1,000. Francisco and his NGO are working with the Clinton Foundation to provide cataract surgeries to patients in need.

Francisco has a clinic in the Magdelana neighborhood of Lima. He has great desires for the clinic and contacted HBI to see if we can help to connect him with other organizations or projects working in Peru who can help to expand their services and increase his ability to help the poor.

This is an exciting opportunity and I am hopeful for whatever may arise. It is amazing how much can come when we work together. More to come.

Data Collection Day 2

Photo: Yes, even though the photo is blurry, the altitude is correct - 15, 875 Ft!

Photo: One of our new friends.

Photo: The survey team hard at work.

I am back in Arequipa after spending almost three days (and what seems like countless hours on buses and in shuttle vans) in the Colca Valley town of Chivay. Our team of researchers have collected 2-full days of data and far exceeded our initial expectations.

The team is doing fantastic. Our biggest challenge has not been the lack of a motivated survey team, they are all fantastic, or a lack of interested research participants, only one person opted out of the survey. Our greatest challenge has been the complexity of the stories we are hearing.

Person after person has incredible stories to share about their lives in one of the most remote areas in Latin America. From spousal violence to alcoholism, everyone we have talked with has been affected by violence and abuse. As one of our team members said, "It is really hard not to want to just stop asking the questions and start trying to 'fix' everything."

Our goal in this project is to collect the sort of meaningful data that will allow for a more concerted approach to services delivery. If our first two days of data collection holds true - there is no lack of service need in the communities . . . there may only be a lack of time to truly help in all of the areas of need.

One story - "Isabel" (not her real name) has lived in the small town of Coporaque for her entire life, sans a short period in Lima. She has never been married nor had any children. When we met her on the streets of this small high altitude town (population 500), she was just going out to tend to her small plot of land. She told us that one of the things she would most like to see for her community is a "meeting or group" that brings together woman her age who are single and live alone. "We all need support up here," she told us, " and for those of us without families that support comes from other people our age." Isabel is 75-years old and just as spry as any 35-year old. She lives in a mountain community at over 12,000 feet above sea level and did not complete secondary school (she left school in the equivalence of the 9th grade).

I am just so inspired when I meet people like Isabel. People who are seeking to create their own change. I am hopeful that the data we receive from our research can help to identify more ideas and opportunities for people like Isabel.

Stay tuned for more updates as the team collects data over the next week. Thank you, as always, for all of your support!

Day 1 in Peru

Photo: The lonley Lima airport at 2 a.m.

Photo: Bleary eyed, but ready to go. My first meeting is in just a couple of hours.

It doesn't matter how many times I make this trip - sitting in the Lima airport for 5-hours from 1 a.m. until 6 a.m. is dreadful!

Day one and we will be gathering all of our materials together to get ready for the trip to the Colca. We start data collection in the afternoon on Thursday and then begin a full fledged data grab on Friday.

Father Alex and I will be meeting with the Bishop of Arequipa in just a few hours to discuss partnering our resources on the development of a drop-in center for abandon youth in downtown Arequipa. This is a dream for HBI and a project we have loosely been working on for a number of years. Keep your fingers crossed that the meeting goes well.

I am excited for this week and our research project - as we have a great team of volunteers and should be able to get really robust data sets together.

Check out the Blog throughout the next week for frequent updates. Thanks!

CARE III - The Colca Valley

We are headed to Peru next week to conduct our third research and community survey project with the University of North Carolina-Wilmington School of Nursing and Community Health and Dr. Kae Livsey.

Our project will be conducted in the high Andean region of the Colca Valley. We are partnering with the Portland based NGO Quechua Benefit to help define the health care access and utilization of a number of communities that rim the Colca Valley (one of the deepest and most beautiful canyons in the world - see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colca_Canyon).

In addition to health care access and utilization questions, we will be seeking information on general socio-demographics and data on water access, employment and general lifestyle needs.

Our goal with this project is to create a statistically sound "picture" of the needs of the people living in the rural communities of the Colca Valley so that we can help to direct appropriate care mechanisms and resources. Equally, we are hoping that our research (once published) will have an influence on policy makers and government officials. Few studies have been conducted in the the rural communities of Latin American on health care access and utilization. If policy makers are going to truly use the resources they have at their discretion to meet the needs of their communities - they must have good, sound data to make those decisions.

Not too many politicians read dry community health research, but once the data reach the "public airwaves" it has the potential to create resounding levels of influence. As the saying goes - a bell once rung can never be un-rung.

You can follow our progress in the Colca Valley on this Blog - look for nightly updates on our progress. And, as always - thank you for all of your continued support.

Why donate to HBI?

Right now . . . somewhere in a small village, a squatter community, a city slum – a child has lost hope. The pain and suffering that they have endured for far too long have pushed them to the point of breaking.

Somewhere, right now . . . a child will begin a life on the streets.

Right now . . . somewhere in a small village, a squatter community, a city slum - a woman has taken her last beating. The pain and suffering she has endured for far, far too long has pushed her to seek a different life.

Somewhere, right now . . . a woman is desperate for new opportunities. Desperate for hope.

Right now . . . somewhere in a small village, a squatter community, a city slum - a young person is struggling with their sexual identity. They overwhelmed with fear that the life they so greatly wish to live will never happen. They are afraid that the life they were meant to live will get them killed.

Somewhere, right now . . . a young person is seeking the chance to become who they are meant to be. Right now they live in fear.

There is no way we can know how many children are in such situations. There is no way we can know the number of woman who suffer through domestic violence and abuse. There is no way we can know the total number of gay and lesbian young people who are struggling with their sexual and gender identities - without any guidance or support.

The numbers of people in these situations would overwhelm us even if we did have an accurate means of accounting for their needs. One thing we do know with certainty is that it will take more than one person, one organization or one idea to shift the reality for a child, to break the bonds of abuse and oppression for a woman to free a young person from the pain of rejection and cruelty.

It will take a community. It will take people committed to working in their own countries, their own communities, their own neighborhoods. It will take a movement. This is what HBI is all about. We are shaping a movement.

We know that we cannot reach every child, every woman, every young person . . . and, we believe that we can empower everyone to reach every child, every woman, every young person. Through our healthcare outreach campaigns, our educational conferences, our trainings and our community surveys we are working to bring greater awareness.

We are working to build a community of providers, professionals and people dedicated to creating and sustaining change. We are working to build bridges that allow everyone to cross over and make a difference.

We are working to assure that one day soon no child will ever be without hope.

Please know that every penny we raise will be used to its highest extent. Please know that the work you are doing to help HBI build our capacity – is work that will make a difference in the life of a child without hope, a woman without support, a young person without resources.

Please know that you are helping to change the world – by building bridges and empowering communities.

Thank you.

Why HBI?

Health Bridges International is an organization that was started with the mission of creating bridges between resources and needs. This rather daunting task has led our organization to partner on a number of projects – from healthcare outreach campaigns to educational conferences to community surveys. Our work has been shaped by the ever-present desire to create sustainable change in the lives of people living in extreme poverty through collaboration.

For HBI, collaboration is a tool to serve the underserved. Our goal is ending extreme poverty.

Our ambitious programs have taken a slight shift in the last few years. This shift has been partly due to the changing economic and societal needs of the countries where we operate and partly due to our organizational need and desire to focus our efforts. We are still fully grounded in the belief that true change - lasting, sustainable change – comes from empowering people to develop their own futures; and, we believe that one of the critical ways that this happens is through educating and training the next generation of leaders.

HBI works to train, educate and motivate leaders at the professional level, community level and individual level. In 2011 we will be expanding our program to reach underserved communities through conferences and trainings, care delivery programs, and research projects.

For many years HBI has worked to bring services and advocacy to boys living on the streets of Peru. In 2011, we hope to develop a program that can be a training opportunity for students to learn the best practices and promising models of support. We hope that such a program will empower the next generation of change agents in their own communities.

HBI is dedicated to changing the world through connecting people, programs and ideas. We are working to build a community of providers, professionals and people dedicated to creating and sustaining change. We are working to build bridges that allow everyone to cross over and make a difference.

Strategic Planning

Photo: Our beautiful Alexandra Margaret.

Over the next couple of months, HBI will be undertaking a strategic planning process. The goal of our reflective process is to truly align our Mission with our programs and projects. The Board of Directors and staff will be meeting to discuss the Mission, Vision and Values of HBI and how we can best assure that these important philosophies infuse all aspects of our work.

I am really excited for this planning process and feel confident that we are going to craft a focus for our future that will help to make our NGO even more effective.

Stay tuned for updates from the Strategic Planning Retreat and our strategic planning process.

Thank you for all of your continued support.

P.S. Call me a shameless proud father - but I had to add a picture of Alexandra.

Thank you: Anchorage, Alaska

A very big thank you goes out to Mr. Steven Dougherty and the people of Anchorage, AK.

On September 30, Steven and his cohort of fans, family and friends helped to put on a fundraiser for HBI and our partner organizations. The event was a huge success!

We are so proud to be aligned with people like Steven and the amazing network of caring, compassionate folks in Anchorage.

In 2011, Father Alex and I will be making the trip to Anchorage for the "Third Annual Connect Peru" event. Please consider joining us!

Lima's Mayoral Elections

Lima to have first female mayor ever

By FRANKLIN BRICENO (AP) – (FIrst appeared on Google News at 00:30 a.m. on 04 October 2010)

LIMA, Peru — A moderate leftist looked Sunday night to be headed by a narrow margin to becoming Lima's first elected female mayor.

A victory by Susana Villaran would give the left control of Peru's coastal capital — with 7 million people home to one in three of the Andean nation's inhabitants — for the first time in nearly three decades.

Villaran, a 61-year-old human rights advocate and former minister of social development and women's affairs, was leading pro-business candidate Lourdes Flores 38.9 percent to 37.2 percent, according to official results with 13 percent of the vote counted.

An unofficial quick count gave Villaran (Veeh-yah-RAHN) a slightly better than one-point victory over Flores, 50, as Peruvians chose mayors and governors across the country.

Flores has twice lost presidential races while Villaran was a fringe candidate in the 2006 election in which Flores finished third.

The Lima mayor's race was being watched closely as a barometer of presidential elections due in April. Villaran is not allied with the main leftist contender in that race, populist former military officer Ollanta Humala, though he endorsed her.

President Alan Garcia, who is constitutionally barred from running for re-election, defeated Humala in 2006 in a runoff.

An unorthodox candidate from the middle class who says she smoked marijuana in her youth, Villaran catapulted in popularity in the last few months of the campaign with a pro-environment message, promising to clean up a city with some of the world's most contaminated air.

She rejects what she has called "the authoritarian militarism" of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, saying she identifies more with the more moderate leftist leaders of Uruguay and El Salvador.

Copyright © 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Sunflowers

Photo: Girasoles, a community in motion

I would like to tell you about a recent trip I made to the city of Ica. Unbeknownst to me, the bus ride to Ica (on a public transport bus) is 6-hours. Needless to say, this made for a long day. Long bus rides aside, my trip to Ica was predicated on a request from a long time partner of HBI’s - Mr. Billy Clark, Union Biblica's Director of Operations.

In the spring of 2010 Mr. Clark went to City of Ica to accompany a work team to the Girasoles Project. For a number of years Union Biblica has run a home for abandon boys just outside of the city center of Ica. While visiting the Girasoles home he was asked by the "house Father" (a delightful young man by the name of Augusto) to join him for a quick trip to an area just west of the Girasoles Center. What Billy saw in this area was extremely compelling to him. As he wrote in an email to me "the area is one of the poorest I have ever seen in Peru - and I have been everywhere in Peru. We must do something Wayne."

Well, as you all know, I could not turn down such an invitation. On Thursday my own eyes confirmed Billy's words. This was indeed one of the poorest areas I have ever been to in Peru (and I have been to a lot of places in Peru and a lot of places in developing countries). The community, ironically named Girasoles (Sunflower in English), is located at the end of a long dirt road. It was a resettlement area following the massive earthquakes in Ica in 2007. Not only did the government move this very poor community to the new area of Girasoles, they used the area to dump debris and waste from the various reconstruction sites around the area. It is an amazing place. Words are hard to generate that fully describe the desolation and seeming hopelessness. I have a small video (see below), but even this 90-second montage does not describe the need.

One woman (please see the photo above) truly helps to amplify my story. We met this young woman as we went around the area delivering water from a truck Union Biblica rented for the afternoon (a whopping S/200 Soles provides a truck, driver, and water for most of the community; S/200 is about $60). I should mention that Girasoles is a community of some 180 families and about 1,200 people. Anyway, as we walked around helping people get water back to their "homes," my eye caught a young woman with a baby on her back. She was methodically bringing out buckets (actually old plastic bins and buckets) for water and seemed to be very self-sufficient. All the while, a small baby dangled from her back in a cloth shall.

Of course I had to approach her to ask the age of her baby. As it turns out, he is 9-months old (the same age as our little Alex but giant in comparison). She is 23 years old, single and living alone in a shack made of black plastic sheets and woven rattan mats. She has no electricity, no water, no sewage disposal, and no work. She keeps a few ducks and chickens in her home for food and burns scavenged wood for her cooking and heat.

She did not ask me for anything. She was very thankful for my meager help in carrying a few buckets of water back to her home - but she was more than capable of taking care of herself. When we asked her about her life - she spoke without emotion or elaboration. She merely stated, "I am working for a better life, and I am looking toward the future."

HBI is committed to helping build opportunities for change. We do this by bridging resources to need. We will be taking a team to work in the community of Girasoles in the City of Ica in the summer of 2011. Please consider joining us. Let’s all work toward a better life for everyone. Thank you.

Piura: A Successful Health Care Training Conference

Photo: A pre-conference reception for the Piura speakers

Photo: HBI and Vida Peru Piura Conference

Imagine a city the size of Los Angeles that is constantly under construction. Okay wait, that is Los Angeles. Really, imagine that this city is in a developing country. A country that was, at one point, one of the poorest countries in Latin America. Well – that city is Lima.

I was back in my favorite city for less than 24-hours and the amount of change since my last trip (just 6 short weeks ago) startled me. Everywhere I looked things were under construction. From sidewalks to new boutique apartments, change was truly afoot.

One afternoon I went for a run to one of my favorite little parks (Ben will know this area fondly, “los Olivos”). This is one area of Lima where time stands still. Here is where you can go for a late afternoon run and see the old money of Lima out walking with their personal nurses, their dog walkers, their nannies – all in a continuous processional down a strip of side walk that runs right down the middle of an old olive grove. Los Olivos is an area where the magnitude of this constant change in Lima can be least understood and most understood.

The old money of Lima is a very private group. They are very wealthy. Their lives are split between the very privileged world of Lima (for the wealthy) and Europe, California and other large Latin America mega-cities. They have a great deal of privilege that comes from their financial clout. They are very removed from the change that is happening in the poorer sections of Lima.

In some of the poorest sections of Lima – San Juan de Miraflores, Via Espranza, and Carabayllo – life has been changing in the last couple of years, but not necessarily for the better. In fact, in a lot of areas around Lima-the poor appear to be getting poorer. The gap is widening to the point that it is getting hard to see anyway that we can close it.

There are, however, people who are working ever day to close the gap. When I was in Lima last week I met with Reverend Pat Blanchard. We met to talk about the Anglican Church’s work in some of the very poorest communities of Lima; areas where basic needs are still going greatly unmet. She told me of her fantastic project, the Shalom Center, and the work they are doing to get more assistance and advocacy for children suffering with disabilities. She is doing amazing work with only a shoestring budget. Yet, she told me of several areas in the massive city of Lima where there exists a real need for more programs like hers – but there is no money to start (or better, sustain) the programs.

One way that HBI is working to ensure programs like Reverend Pat’s are sustainable is through our continuing education trainings and conferences. We recently helped to conduct a conference in the Northern Peru city of Piura. Along with our Peruvian partners, Vida Peru and Tierra y Ser, we held one and a half days of instruction in “Diabetes Care and Management” for physicians and nurses working in the communities of Piura. We had over 350 participants in our nearly two days of training. Our speakers, a collection of U.S. professionals and Peruvian colleagues, were fantastic.

Our work is built on the premise that bridges of collaboration and support are the central tool to help ensure that sustainable models for change are available to all communities and people. The conference helped to bridge the gap in knowledge between research and practice. The outcome of the conference was a community committed to learning and growing together. HBI looks to make a difference through innovative approaches. The Piura Conference is one of these approaches.

Thank you for your continued support of HBI and our work to serve the people of Peru. PLEASE consider joining us for one of our Team Peru trips. To learn more about our Team Peru trips - please see: Outreach and Trips

Team Peru 2010

Photo: Team Peru - Week 2 (Alto Cayma)

I am home. There is a bitter sweet element to typing this message. The sweet part - well, I am home to my two favorite people in the whole world . . . my wife and our little girl. The bitter part, - it is really hard to leave Peru. There is so much work left to do; and coming home is really hard.

Our team this year was just fantastic. From every level of care delivery to ever special project, we had an amazing group of people. The trip spanned two weeks and included an outreach clinic (in total we provided care to over 900 children and adults), activities with the Mission of Alto Cayma, a special carpentry project to build a Sacristy at Father Alex's Church, and a couple of projects at the Elohim School in the Mariano Melgar community of Arequipa.

In the end, the greatest lesson for our team was learning to work together. It is always amazing to watch the team come together over the course of the trip. This year was no different.

We will be taking another team to Peru in October. If you are interested in joining HBI for an exciting adventure in the beautiful Department of Ancash, then please contact us at: info@HBInt.org

Thank you for all of your support.

Happy Birthday!

One of the great parts about the Team Peru trip is the chance to celebrate one another in Peru. This year was a big Birthday year. Got to love the "Sir Robert" plaque.

Mind the Gap

"You should run in the street."

At first I thought he was kidding. I mean a 12-year old boy could not possibly be telling me to run in the street. Heck, the street was very busy, and it was not like I was taking up more than my "fair share" of the sidewalk.

HBI is fortunate to have a great relationship with two hotels in Lima. The Hotel Diego Ferre and the DeVille Inn Hotel are both located in the upscale neighborhood of Miraflores. The DeVille Inn Hotel is actually located at the confluences of the neighborhoods of Miraflores and San Isidro. San Isidro is a very upperclass neighborhood - along the tony lines of a Bel Air, California.

This morning on my run I was weaving my way through the elegant homes and private golf club of San Isidro. Because of this - I guess I did not expect that I would be chided for running on the sidewalk. Least of all, chided by a 12-year old for running on the sidewalk. However, such is the huge shift in wealth in Peru.

Okay, I know what you are thinking . . . just because people have money does not mean that they will be rude. In fact, I will admit - it is hard for me to type these words because I do not wish to come across as preaching or pontificating; and, the reality of the economic and social situation in Peru is that the divide between the rich and the poor is getting greater and greater everyday.

Just the other day I was speaking with a Peruvian physician from Arequipa who has volunteered with us for a number of years. He is a great young man who comes from a very wealthy family. He has had the privilege to travel around the world, study in Germany, and attend one of the best medical schools in Peru. He is a big barometer for our work.

Augusto was telling me that he had been in the beach town of Asia (Asia is about 200 km south of Lima on the coast; you might remember Asia as an area where HBI has done SAVE Children outreach projects with Union Biblica) over the summer months. He said that he went to a club, a disco-tech, and had to pay 200 Soles (about $60) to get into the club. He said that once he was inside the club, he was asked to pay another $500 (yes, that is DOLLARS!) to "rent" a table for the night. He was floored. He told me that he had never imagined that there would be so much wealth in Lima.

I asked Augusto where all the wealth in Lima was coming from. I told him that I understood that Lima is a city of some 12-million people - and, I just could not understand where all the money was coming from. He told me he had no idea. He said, "you can't even imagine the money that a few, very select people have. It is incredible."

This conversation really got me thinking. The wealthy of Peru are getting wealthier and wealthier - and the poor . . . well, you know where I am going with this. How can this "divide" be narrowed?

If money were the only answer for fixing the social and economic problems in Peru's poorest communities and populations - then the problem(s) would have been fixed many years ago. Multi-national NGO after multi-national NGO have poured money into creative programs and projects throughout the country. And, the extreme poverty continues. In fact, it is worsening.

So then, how does the gap between the richest Peruvians and the poorest Peruvians get narrowed. We, HBI, think that a tool to bridge the two worlds of Peru is through a massive level of volunteerism of Peruvians for Peruvians. We think that Peruvians, volunteering in medical, social and community building outreach will be the intervention to narrow the gap.

HBI, in partnership with our Peruvian NGO colleagues, is working to build a massive volunteer program in Arequipa. The goals of the program are simple - engage more Peruvian's in volunteer programs and projects and increase the understanding that we are all asked to "Mind the Gap."

As always - stay tuned to the HBI Website and Blogpost for updates. Thank you for all your support.

How do people live in this much dust?

Life in Alto Cayma is about controlling the dust. People live in homes with dirt floors, in the dust and sand of the high desert. They are forever "battling" the dust. Yet, in spite of the dust, dirt and blowing winds - they mange to keep white shirts white and clean clothes clean. It is not a miracle - but a lot of work.

One afternoon as our team was transitioning from a morning activity, a volunteer on the Team Peru trip turned and asked me, "how do people live in this much dust?"

My answer to him was a long winded response. Long winded because I don't think you can directly answer such a question without first recognizing the reasons that people are forced to move to the "dust" in the first place. Many of the people who make their way to the large peri-urban slums like Alto Cayma come from communities high in the mountains. Areas with little to no resources - i.e. schools, healthcare, jobs. They come seeking a better life.

Often times, not always mind you, they do not find the "pot of gold" at the end of the rainbow. Rather, they often find that their lives are much more complicated as they struggle to culturally adjust to life in a big city. Their lives in the mountains are very centered around raising their alpaca and llama herds. They have small crops of potatoes or other arid agriculture and they will get their basic needs met through battering.

When they arrive in the city they are thrust into a whole new economy and struggle to develop the skills to create an economic lever for themselves and their families. They live in the dust because they are continually hopeful that a better life is "just around the corner." They live in the dust because they want so much more for their children. They life in the dust because they have no where else to go.

For many of the people living in the Pueblos Jovenes (peri-urban slums) around Arequipa, life is about a hope that one day things will be better. A hope that they will not always live in the dust.

Let me introduce you to Alan Garcia

"Let me introduce you to Alan Garcia, but not the real one." Such were the words of introduction that Karen gave to our group while on a walking tour of a new Pueblo Jovenes on the outskirts of Alto Cayma. Alan we would learn, was from a very poor family. In fact, the afternoon we met him on the road up to the neighborhood of "the 11th of May" (neighborhoods are named in accordance to when they are settled) he was carrying food provided to him from the community kitchen Father Alex runs.

Alan was a severely developmentally delayed young man of twenty three. His parents, both developmentally delayed, were extremely poor and had very few skills to help their son break from the vicious cycle of poverty. That afternoon on the side of a dirt road high in the sand hills outside of a vey poor community, we exchanged a few words with Alan and laughed with him about his famous namesake. He smiled as best he could.

Later in the week Dr. Bob and Karen were with Maria (the social worker from Father Alex's mission) on home visits with some of our North American volunteers. They stopped at Alan's house to say hello and check on him. He was very sick. More than likely suffering from a severe case of pneumonia.

Dr. Bob examined Alan and told Maria that they needed to get him to a hospital as soon as possible. He was not just sick, he was VERY sick. In fact, in the cab ride to the hospital - Alan stopped breathing. Dr. Bob and Karen were able to resuscitate him and asked the cab driver to get them to the hospital "hasta pronto!"

When they arrived at the Hospital Goyeneche, the principle hospital in Arequipa for the poor and a place that HBI hosted a Continuing Medical and Nursing Education conference in April of this year, Alan was breathing at a rate of 35 respirations per minute and ashen in color. Fortunately, our HBI team is on a first name basis with the director of Emergency Medicine (thanks to our conference and countless meetings of introduction and relationship development). Dr. Talavera offered all of his help to assist in Alan's care.

Unfortunately, Alan was brought to the hospital gravely ill. He was septic and had to be intubated soon after admission. He died later that evening. Karen, a true Saint of a person and a real blessing to HBI, stayed at the hospital (missing the Team Peru farewell dinner) to assure that Alan's developmentally delayed parents had an advocate to help them through the trauma of losing a son.

The life of the people of Alto Cayma seems to be one of constant lose. They struggle to get their basic needs met - often falling far short. Alan more than likely developed a pneumonia as a result of a primary infection with H1N1 influenza. His case was extremely complicated by his intellectual delay and the poverty he lived in. He was a typical person living in desperate poverty in that he was always a bit undernourished and forever under the heavy load of severe stress.

Tonight, as I type this update, my heart and prayers go out to Alan's family. I hope that they will know that they are not alone. I hope that they will know that there are people working to one day end their suffering and provide them with the services and support they need and deserve.

Please join me in remembering Alan Garcia . . . a young man whose life was cut far too short; and a young man who should not be forgotten.

Alto Cayma - Awakenings

This week has been a whirlwind. It is Friday night and I am writing my first Blog post since Monday. Yikes!

A few really wonderful things have happened this week. I know what you are thinking - only a few. Well, I guess that is sort of a lie - there were a lot more; and, I am not going to pretend I have the time to scribe them all. Rather, I am going to tell you a couple of wonderful stories that are all generated from our fantastic volunteers. The stories will not be presented in chronological order - my apologies.

One day this week we went to the community of Mariano Melgar. You may remember Mariano Melgar from a previous Blog post (See: http://hbint.blogspot.com/2010/01/elohim-god-is-alive.html). This is a really interesting story all on its own. The work of a few very dedicated people, a Peruvian woman by the name of Rosa and a Australian woman by the name of Susi, have created an oasis of education in one of the poorest "barrios" in Latin American. This week we took a team to Mariano Melgar to complete well child examinations and evaluations (height, weight, BMI graphing with the WHO tables on every child) on all of the children in the school.

Well, this week during our outreach clinic, we had the luxury of having a psychiatric nurse practitioner on our team. Dr. Lisa Thompson and I know one another from our work in the United States with homeless populations. She is an amazing person. She is so compassionate and so intelligent that you can't help but feel a bit jealous when you are around her. Well, we decided to use Lisa to help determine the psychological need in the Elohim school.

We asked Lisa to meet with the director of the school to discuss her concerns and impressions of the needs of the children. We then had Lisa meet with a couple of the teachers and finally a couple of the students. Now you should know that Elohim is a primary school - this means that classes end at the 5th grade. My point is this - we were working with very young children.

Lisa met with Rosa the director first. The stories she heard were very impacting to her. She told me that during her visit with Rosa, there was a time when Rosa started to cry talking about the problems of her students. She told me that the compassion that Rosa has for her students is amazing.

Then . . . everything changed. As Lisa would later tell me, it was a life changing experience. She told me that meeting with the students was incomprehensible. She told me of student after student who was living with extreme abuse. Students whose lives were punctuated by absent parents and alcoholic relatives. She said that the stories were overwhelming. She said that at one point she realized that there was nothing she could do. She said that she realized at one point that all she could offer was a listening ear and a caring, concerned smile.

The director of the school told Lisa that she estimated that the prevalence of abuse within the student population is about 70%. She told Lisa story after story of abuse and traumatization in the school age children. She told Lisa that they desperately needed a psychologist or social worker to help with the school and meet with the teachers and children. She wondered if there was any way that the children would ever get the help they needed.

I spoke with Lisa last night. She was obviously shaken by the experience. We talked for a few minutes. There was nothing I could say that would lessen the blow of her experience. I did not try. I told her that I understood her pain and was there to be a listening ear should she need one. And, I told her that I had realized - in 16-years of work in Peru and Latin America - that all I really have to offer is my compassion.

Dr. Lisa is an amazing person. I am thoroughly convinced that she will come back to Peru . . . and I know she will make a huge difference in the lives of the children of Mariano Melgar - just by being her caring, compassionate self.

Day One in Alto Cayma

Our first day in the community of Alto Cayma has been a mix of meetings and projects. The experience of being back in this community has been so exciting. It is amazing how many things have changed . . . and yet, how much has remained the same.

Our team has been split into a number of different groups. Some people are working on special projects like helping to build a sacristy for the Church. While others have been involved in the day-to-day routine of the community and the operations of the Mission.

These "day-to-day" operations include helping with the feeding program (on any given day about 800 people receive food from the Mission), working in the day care center (80 children are enrolled in a morning pre-school and an afternoon day care center; this allows very poor parents to leave their children in a safe and secure location while they seek work), accompanying the Mission's social worker on house visits to the community (every morning and every afternoon Maria, the Mission social worker, conducts visits to the poorest of the poor in this community of over 30,000 people), and working with the Peruvian healthcare team in the "brick-and-mortar" clinic.

This evening during the team meeting I asked a few people to share their first day experiences in Alto Cayma. One young man on the team told our group a very powerful story. He said that he had accompanied Maria to the home of a elderly woman. The "home" was really nothing more than a single brick wall with three thatched and woven mats. He said that the woman had recently undergone surgery for an undisclosed cancer. She lived alone, her husband had long since left her for another woman, and had little to no resources to attend to her basic needs.

He told the group how "painful" it was to listen to this woman tell her story - a story of life long suffering and continued struggle. He said that at one point the woman told him that the only thing she wanted in life was to be able to die in a "proper" home.

Listening to him tell the story, it was obvious how great the impact this home visit had been. Later in the evening I over heard our team member talking to other group members. He was telling them that he has, for most of his life, considered himself a "firm agnostic;" but the experience he had early in the day really pressed him. He said that at one point during the home visit he felt that there was nothing he could offer the woman. He felt that the plight of her life would not be dramatically changed by anything that he could do. He said that in this realization, a realization that the complexity of need in the world is almost beyond comprehension, he felt the only thing he could offer was prayer.

Our work in Peru is a slow and steady progression. I wish I could say that we were changing the lives of thousands of people - but I am not sure if there is any truth in that statement. I can, however, say that we are having a life altering effect on the people that join our teams. I can say that small, challenging experiences are making a huge difference in the lives of the Team Peru members.

Week Two Begins

Friday night was a fantastic group dinner with a welcoming celebration for our new team members joining Team Peru for week two of the campaign, and a farewell party for our team members headed back to the their homes in the U.S. Daniel did a great job in lining up a really nice restaurant for the team to enjoy a traditional Peruvian dinner with traditional Andean dances. It was, a great way to transition our experience.

Week two had us head from Lima on Saturday afternoon to Arequipa. We all got to our new hotel after a fantastic dinner with Father Alex around 7 p.m. Needless-to-say, the team was smashed and needed the "free evening" to get a well deserved rest.

On Sunday the entire team headed up to Alto Cayma for Mass with Father Alex. The Mass was particularly important for Lee and I - as our daughter Alex was Baptized by Father ALex. It was an amazing experience as our entire Alto Cayma "family" came to the celebration. Having worked in Alto Cayma for over a decade, HBI has created some really important relationships in the community. It was so nice to introduce everyone to our daughter and have them share in our celebration of her Faith.

Tonight we have another team meeting and will set the stage for the week. Come Monday morning, we will hit the ground running with a plethora of activities and opportunities for the group to get involved with. As always, we will be posting updates and pictures on the website and Blogspot.

Thank you, as always, for all of your support.

Days 2, 3 and 4

Our week has just flown by. From the exhaustion of our first couple of days to the delight of working together as a team, this week has been a huge success.

Tuesday and Wednesday we were in the South – the communities of Chincha (a different school than Monday) and Canete. The drive to our school sites took us anywhere from 2 hours to ninety minutes. The bulk of the kids we have been seeing are undernourished, stunted in their growth, and have a mouth filled with cavities – but they are, by in large, pretty healthy.

The bulk of the kids are pretty healthy – that does not mean all of them are. Some of the children we have met through this week are living in extremely difficult situations. We have identified a few children who we suspect are in homes with significant abuse and trauma. Our team of social workers and our staff lawyer are already developing a plan to advocate for their needs and their safety.

Last night we met as a team to outline our plan for helping the “cases” identified over the week of outreach clinics. Over the next week, while the team heads to Arequipa – Alan, the Union Biblica schools worker, and Daniel, HBI’s staff lawyer, will be meeting with the teachers and the families of the children we have identified. Their goal will be to conduct a thorough assessment of the needs of the children and their families and then prepare a well-crafted plan of support and advocacy.

We have just starting our last day of clinic. In fact, as I type this message – our team is scrambling around seeing patients, helping with health education, and preparing medications. This has been an absolutely fantastic week that has been all the more special because of the phenomenal work of our volunteer Peruvian and American team members.

I will be writing more in the next couple of days. And, as always – thank you so much for all of your support.

Making a Difference

I wonder some times . . . are we really making a difference. I wonder if the amount of work that goes into preparing for and exciting an outreach campaign is really the best use of our resources. And then something like this afternoon happens.

We were busy today. The school where we conducted our outreach was again in the town of Chincha - some two hours from the Union Biblica Camp Kawai. When we arrived at the school (a very poor school in a community that was strongly impacted by the coastal earthquake in the winter of 2007) the director and her administrators had set up a reception tent and convened all of the elementary classes into a reception. We were greeted with music, speeches of appreciation and excitement and rousing rounds of applause from 500 of our newest 5-8 year old friends.

After our celebration we quickly got down to business. Our task for the day was a rather big affair - we needed to see as many children from the morning school "shift" (in Peru, many of the rural and poorer community schools will hold multiple academic shifts during the day to accommodate all of the children who require instruction) before the afternoon group showed up. We were, in so many words, in a big hurry.

As the day progressed we went through a few rounds of chaos - but eventually settled into a very nice rhythm. Late in the day I was called to help with a patient in another part of the school. While I was gone, my colleague from Union Biblica (Mr. Billy Clark - a fantastic young man, but that is a whole other story) started to talk with one of the last parents waiting in line with their children. She was a young woman, perhaps not older than 28 years of age. She told Billy a story that would become the focus for all that we are trying to do.

The young woman told Billy about the 5 children that she was taking care of. She told him that her sister had abandon the kids. She said that her sister had led a very chaotic life - and ultimately had 5 children with 5 different men, but now wanted nothing to do with the kids and left them for her to take care of. She was overwhelmed and did not any idea what to do.

We recognized that the needs of this "family" were great. Dr. Bob Gehringer, HBI's project director and the campaign's medical director, along with Billy and Alan Alcouser from Union Biblica, met with the young mother at the end of the clinic. They later retold much of their meeting to our group this evening.

The story, as best they could understand, goes something like this - no longer interested in caring for her children, the mother of the 5 kids one day left all of them with her sister. She had, as the sister told Billy and Dr. Bob, been irresponsible with the children's care for a long time. The sister described emotional, physical and suspected sexual abuse to our team. She told them that the children had recently been struggling with emotional outbursts and problems in school.

She told told Dr. Bob and Billy that she had been trying to work with the government to get the necessary paper work to take over custody of the children - but had run into issues because none of the children had a birth certificate or a Peruvian identification card (similar to a U.S. Social Security card). The sister told Billy and Bob that she was unable to get the proper paperwork completed on the children to retrieve their birth certificates because all of the children had been born in different hospitals under different men's names. Without the proper paperwork - the children could not be enrolled in a new school (they are having a significant amount of troubles at their current school) or be eligible for state funded health insurance. Without the proper paperwork, the children had little options for a future. The young woman was frustrated and had come to the end of her rope.

Today, when Bob and Billy were telling us about their meeting with the young woman, they both remarked (on more than one occasion) how much they felt like the young woman really just needed someone to talk with. She really needed to speak to someone that would listen to her story. Billy said that the woman told him that she had told her story many times - but always felt like people were not listening to her or did not care.

The reality of the situation is that without a caring Aunt, these children would more than likely be on the streets. The reality of the situation is that without a little bit of help, the family might completely fall apart. Our goal in working with the family will be to help to advocate for their needs. We will start by having our partners from Union Biblica meet with the young woman again to completely document her steps for seeking custody of the children. We will use the skills and talents of HBI's lawyer, Dr. Daniel Bueno Rojas, to help legally advocate for the children.

We do not know how this story will end. Our hope is that we can be receptive to the needs of the children and the young woman and help to advocate in a meaningful and proactive way. Our goal is that we will prevent any further harm to these precious lives.

Sometimes it is really hard to know if we are making a difference. Sometimes I wonder if we are using our resources to their greatest extent. Today I know that everything that we have done this week is worth it. I know that we are making a difference.

Thank you for your support.

Chinch Alta Day 1

Sunday, VERY, very early in the morning - the team arrived at Union Biblica's Camp Kawai. After a few hours of sleep we rounded everyone together and got our group organized for a full day of clinic preparations and a "trial run" clinic with the Girasoles boys. By the end of the first day (with only a few hours of sleep) we had completely organized our inventory of medications and supplies, participated in a Church service with the boys at the Casa Girasoles (there are over 45 boys at the home this year because Union Biblica has merged their house in Lima with the Kawai Girasoles house in Mala), and conducted a clinic. It was a full day.

The team worked together magnificently. We were really very smooth and efficient - all things considered. Especially in light of our 4-hours of sleep. It is an understatement to think that everyone's eyelids were open at the first team meeting on Sunday night.

Sunday night was a well deserved rest. Monday morning came rather quickly and we started our day with breakfast at 6:30 am. Our first full day of school outreach was in the town of Chincha, an almost 2-hour drive from the Kawai Camp. We loaded the buses and packed our team into the tight space and tried to catch as much sleep as possible in our commute.

The school in Chincha was just off of the town square. In spite of our long commute (and a bit late start) we managed to get the clinic started at 9:30 am. The first few hours were mayhem - with children and their parents everywhere. The day quickly settled-in and we found a good rhythm for working together.

In just under 6-hours of clinic we saw over 150 children - many of whom were attended by a physician and a dentist. The team was great. Our massage therapist never stopped. She, TJ, was the favorite stop for all of the teacher; even if they were a bit unsure about massage therapy when they first got on the treatment table, by the end of the first minute of treatment - the snoring was a dead giveaway that they were really happy with the care they were receiving.

Our team of dentists, two Peruvian and one North American, were busy right up until the time we boarded the bus to head back to Kawai. This, in spite of the fact that we left a valuable piece of equipment for the dentists back at the camp - and had to have a taxi drive the equipment the 2-hours to our school outreach site.

The medical team, a mix of Peruvian and North American providers did awesome. We had a few wrinkles to start out - but thanks to the direction of Dr. Bob Gehringer, we quickly smoothed things out.

It is a huge understatement to say that everyone was extremely valuable. This is a great team and we are already working together with a clear purpose. Tomorrow we are back in the town of Chincha - but in a different school. Look for team photographs and more stories on the HBI participant Blog and in this Blog post in the coming days.

For now, I am off to bed. Tomorrow is another VERY early morning and really full day.

Thank you for all of your support.

Camp Kawai

Sunday, VERY, very early in the morning - the team arrived at Union Biblica's Camp Kawai. After a few hours of sleep we rounded everyone together and got our group organized for a full day of clinic preparations and a "trial run" clinic with the Girasoles boys. By the end of the first day (with only a few hours of sleep) we had completely organized our inventory of medications and supplies, participated in a Church service with the boys at the Casa Girasoles (there are over 45 boys at the home this year because Union Biblica has merged their house in Lima with the Kawai Girasoles house in Mala), and conducted a clinic. It was a full day.

The team worked together magnificently. We were really very smooth and efficient - all things considered. Especially in light of our 4-hours of sleep. It is an understatement to think that everyone's eyelids were open at the first team meeting on Sunday night. Sunday night was a well deserved rest.

Monday morning came rather quickly and we started our day with breakfast at 6:30 am. Our first full day of school outreach was in the town of Chincha, an almost 2-hour drive from the Kawai Camp. We loaded the buses and packed our team into the tight space and tried to catch as much sleep as possible in our commute.

The school in Chincha was just off of the town square. In spite of our long commute (and a bit late start) we managed to get the clinic started at 9:30 am. The first few hours were mayhem - with children and their parents everywhere. The day quickly settled-in and we found a good rhythm for working together.

In just under 6-hours of clinic we saw over 150 children - many of whom were attended by a physician and a dentist. The team was great. Our massage therapist never stopped. She, TJ, was the favorite stop for all of the teacher; even if they were a bit unsure about massage therapy when they first got on the treatment table, by the end of the first minute of treatment - the snoring was a dead giveaway that they were really happy with the care they were receiving.

Our team of dentists, two Peruvian and one North American, were busy right up until the time we boarded the bus to head back to Kawai. This, in spite of the fact that we left a valuable piece of equipment for the dentists back at the camp - and had to have a taxi drive the equipment the 2-hours to our school outreach site.

The medical team, a mix of Peruvian and North American providers did awesome. We had a few wrinkles to start out - but thanks to the direction of Dr. Bob Gehringer, we quickly smoothed things out.

It is a huge understatement to say that everyone was extremely valuable. This is a great team and we are already working together with a clear purpose. Tomorrow we are back in the town of Chincha - but in a different school. Look for team photographs and more stories on the HBI participant Blog and in this Blog post in the coming days.

For now, I am off to bed. Tomorrow is another VERY early morning and really full day.

Thank you for all of your support.

The best chicken in Lima

Last night the team went to get Pollo a la Brasa.

You must know - I have had Pollo a la Brasa all over Lima. As many of you are well aware, I consider myself to be an "arm chair" expert on Lima and Lima eateries. Well, the place we went to last night Don Tito's (also known as Mario's - but no one knows why . . . given that the original owner's name was Don Tito) is the absolute best.

The famous Peruvian culinary expert, Gaston Acurio, names Don Tito's one of the best places to get this uniquely Peruvian delicacy in all of Lima. The flavors, the quality of the chicken, the size of the French Fries portion - all of these conspire to create the perfect meal.

So the next time (or the first time) you are in Lima - I suggest a trip to the neighborhood of San Borja for the fabulous Don Tito's Pollo a la Brasa.

A day in Lima

After 18 hours of travel - I made it to Lima. Needless-to-say, I am beat. Tonight I will get a full nights rest in preparation of a really full two weeks ahead.

Today was spent organizing our supplies and readying for the teams arrival on Saturday. Thankfully, HBI's trusted staff of Ben, Daniel and Karen have been busy going all over Lima to get supplies and nail down our last minute details. They have done a fantastic job ensuring that we are ready to make the most of the next week.

One thing has really got my mind preoccupied . . . on Wednesday of next week my two little ladies will be joining the team in Peru. Lee and Alexandra are flying down (thankfully in FIrst Class) to spend a full week in Peru. They will join the team in Kawai with HBI and then we will fly together to Arequipa. This is super exciting for me - as I really miss them so much.


In addition, Alexandra will get to meet her name sake (Father Alex) in Arequipa. We are all really looking forward to this meeting and the time that we will get to spend together.

Tomorrow I will post a few photos from our teams first day in Lima. You get to see what goes into the "behind the scenes" planning for a two week medical, dental and social outreach campaign. For now, be rest assured - the work does not ever seem to end.

Thank you for all of your support of HBI and the people of Peru.

Packing Complete

We are done! At least with the packing. Now for the hard part. Off we go to Peru. We are leaving this week - with various people arriving at various times. We will make certain that everyone is kept abreast of the team's exploits!

Check the BlogSpot regularly for updates and photos. Thanks.