CHIMPS team member seeing one of the hundreds of patients seen during the weekIn June the Children’s Health International Medicine Project of Seattle, CHIMPS, arrived for its annual medical trip to Abelines, a remote, rural village in El Salvador’s northeastern mountains. Since 2003, groups of doctors, pediatricians and medical students from Washington have collaborated with ENLACE to support its ongoing efforts in this region. Not only do they bring thousands of dollars worth of much needed medicine to address the curative medical issues, but they also focus on preventive education in an effective way by preparing charlas, training sessions, for the local health committee. The health committee, established with ENLACE’s help 11 years ago, continues to be the primary health educator for this village of approximately 2000 people.
Anya and Shane Wimberly in Abelines
Anya and Shane Wimberly are newlyweds volunteering with ENLACE for this year (and hopefully longer). Anya had this to say about her experience in Abelines with the CHIMPS medical team.
“Over the week we were able to hear how people felt, and how they hurt. We realized how much wouldn’t be treated and how much could have been prevented. We saw very clearly that while aid from the outside can ease the pain, it will never end the suffering.
The North American doctors worked hard examining and treating hundreds of people, but their greatest impact was with the local health committee, for whom they provided encouragement and guidance. This committee is a group of organized community members who volunteer to promote public health in the area. We heard a story about two women, each over forty years old, whose involvement in such community organizations gave them both the courage and the motivation to go to school and learn to read. There was no Adult Ed at that time, but these women were so determined that they enrolled in elementary school and studied alongside the children.
Abelines is a community in transformation, empowered by faith and mobilized in hope. Abelines demonstrates that when war and poverty has done everything in its power to corrupt and destroy, faith has the power to restore. Faith in action is nothing short of a miracle, as people transcend their broken selves to love and serve others.”
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Click here to see Anya’s photos from the week…