Step 1
The initial step was to begin serving the children in the local Compassion International center that is a ministry of the local church, Iglesia Emanuel. This was met soon after the project started in 2014. At that time, there were around 500 children to serve with sick visits and checkups.
Step 2
The clinic was officially opened to the public in April of 2015 after serving for about a year with the children in the Compassion international center. When the clinic was officially opened, it began serving the greater community of Juan Montalvo and Cayambe. Since its opening in 2015, the number of patients seen per year has tripled. In 2017, over 3,000 patients were seen and cared for.
Step 3
Our third step was to serve the broader community with less access to medical care through medical caravans. Although the thought for step 3 was after the clinic had been open for a while, it ended up happening almost simultaneously with the opening of the clinic. The goal at this point is to continue to develop educational programs for the surrounding communities and to continue the medical caravans to areas with little or no access to quality healthcare.
Step 4
Our final step for the medical clinic is to become a clinic of specialties. We’d like to serve the broader community even better through specialists like pediatrics, traumatologists, gynecologists, cardiologists, etc, so we can serve the greater community even better.
MEDICAL CARAVAN
We believe that patients coming to the clinic is important. However, we think it equally as important to reach out to surrounding communities, further in to the mountain and indigenous communities as well as other parts of Ecuador.
The medical caravans provided by the clinic are mobile and go out to serve those who otherwise couldn’t come to the clinic. These caravans provide a visit to the dentist or medical provider for $5, mobile laboratory services, pharmacy (all patients receive vitamins and anti-parasitic medicines), nursing attention and educational services. These caravans are done in collaboration and partnership with Ecuadorian physicians, U.S. and Canadian providers and many others.
The goal of these caravans is to be the hands of feet of Jesus. It is not just to talk about helping and serving, but to actually serve, serve those who are underserved and underprivileged with minimal to no access to healthcare.
