A special place full of special people

Our day was full of special children, disabled and not, special staff, who provide loving kindness and care to the children every day, and special parents, who often sacrifice to send their children to school here.  We continue to work in four teams of physician and pharmacy student, although we divided up these past two days--two groups saw the 18 children from the orphanage.  These are the children and young adults with the most severe disabilities--many are on medications which needed adjustmented, some have behavioral problems which have not responded well to medications, others have club feet with ill fitting shoes; there is the girl, now 18 years old, with severe cerebral palsy who was abandoned at a police station at age 13, pregnant; another child was found lying in the street.  Each of these children have horrific stories prior to finding their way to Camp Hope's orphanage, called Camp Hogar.  Those children that can smile now, do--big, happy smiles.  Our work here is slower paced by design--there is time to look through the medical files of each child, which include notes from the neurologist who volunteers from Germany every year. Lab tests where obtained prior to our arrival--basic blood work, a urine analysis and a stool analysis for parasites--and is in the chart for our review.  Our medical mission here is pretty simple--provide primary care to these children and see what we can do to improve their quality of life.  In many cases, its as simple as alleviating their constipation.

Dr. Shariat carries a 22 year old woman with severe cerebral palsy back to her wheelchair

 The other two health teams saw staff, students and parents of the students.  Most of the children who attend the Camp Hope school live at home with their parents.  Many have special needs that cannot be addressed at a public school, such as being deaf or unable to walk unaided.  Many of the children have cerebral palsy of varying severity, and they receive physical therapy while at the school.  Some of the children who attend have no special needs, but their parents send them due to the smaller class size and the individual attention they receive.

 All of the children must pay a tuition, which is needs based, ranging from $35-$70 a month.  The average income of the families here is $400 a month.  Its not hard to do the math--that is a huge financial sacrifice.  For some of the children, their snack and lunch at the school is their only meal.  Camp Hope is completely supported by donations through a church in Texas, Impact Ministries (where one of the missionaries who started the school is a member), and individual children can be supported through the church foundation.  Elsa, who is a 68 year old woman from Atlanta, here with us on her fifth mission trip to Camp Hope, supports several Camp Hope children.  It is truly amazing what a big heart and a little money can do.  We have seen 91 children, staff and parents during our two days at Camp Hope.  We have one more day working at the school, seeing everyone who wants to be seen.


We love all the smiles and hugs we get from everyone we see.  Last Friday, Pastor Fernando said to us that every child we had helped was as if he himself had been helped--a take-off of Jesus' words.  For us, for every one we care for, it is as if we ourselves had been cared for.  I don't know if that makes any sense--but we are so lucky to be here, working with these amazing kids, their families, and the staff.  If you are interested in learning more about the school and how you can help, their link is www.camphopeecuador.org. To see more pictures of this special school, go to www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.1995452129024.2095423.1325083251